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PRICE 50 CENTS. 



JC3L M m jL .S?" 





JUKES FISH, Jr 





JAMES FISK, Jr. 



A LIFE 



JAMES EISK, JR. 



BEING A 



FULL AND ACCURATE NARRATIVE OF ALL 

THE ENTERPRISES IN WHICH HE 

HAS BEEN ENGAGED. 




NEW YORK: 
POLHEMUS & PEARSON, PRINTERS, 114 FULTON STREET. 

1871. 

tr 



v 






THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 

MARSHALL P. STAFFORD, 
in tlie office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 






Si 
A. LIFE OF 

JAMES FISK, Jr. 



CHAPTER I. 

CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL-DAYS HIS EARLY HOME A VER- 

MONT PEDDLER HIS FIRST SENSATION. 

James Fisk, Jr., was born in the historic town of Ben- 
nington, in the southwestern part of Vermont. At the 
time of his birth his father peddled from this point as a 
centre, visiting- the adjacent country in all directions with 
one of those carts which were much more frequent before 
the revolutions produced by railroads than they now are, 
being a small variety store upon wheels and carrying 
nearly everything that a rural community ordinarily pur- 
chased, from a silk dress to a jewsharp. While the son 
was still a small child the father moved across to the east 
side of the Green Mountains and established the base of 
his operations at Brattleboro, in the southeastern corner 
of the State, on the Connecticut River. It was here in one 



of the loveliest spots in the " Switzerland of America," in 
the heart of the Green Mountains, in the midst of scenery 
generally supposed to foster and develop some of the finest 
traits of character, that passed the childhood and youth of 
the man whose career is the greatest wonder as well as 
one of the most significant commentaries of the times. 
Here, in the little " deestrict " school, he received all of the 
very limited education he could be induced to take in ; 
here still five many of the friends and companions of his 
young days, who have watched his career with the greatest 
wonder and amazement and now talk of it with deepest 
interest ; from here he has taken not a few of the play- 
fellows and acquaintances of his early life to fill places of 
various kinds that have since been at his disposal ; here 
he grew up to manhood, was married, and first entered 
into business on his own account ; and here he first dis- 
played in the same marked way, though on a smaller 
stage, the same striking traits which make him so con- 
spicuous now, and exhibited abilities so marked as to lead 
to his being called to other and larger spheres of action. 

Should you enter the Revere House at Brattleboro and 
casually remark to the affable clerk, " I believe this is the 
town that has the honor of having produced Jim Fisk ?" 
he will answer you. "Yes, this is the very house where he 
used to live. His father built it, and sometimes used to 
run it himself when a satisfactory tenant could not be 
found. Jim himself used to wait on table in that room 
right in there," pointing to a room beside the office, now 



REMINISCENCES. 



used as the general room for reading, writing, private con- 
versation, etc. You will at once perceive that you have 
touched upon a subject in which your interlocutor takes 
much interest, if not pride, and about which he delights 
to talk. He will lead the way to the room previously des- 
ignated as the scene of Jim's first services to the public in 
the capacity of garcon, the character in which he vented 
his first puns smdjeio d'esprits, thereby rendering himself 
no small favorite with the guests. Your attention will 
here be called to one of the walls of the room, now become 
a " Neptunian wall " or a kind of " Poets' Corner," being 
set apart for a collection of memorials and souvenirs of 
its hero, consisting of the cartoons and caricatures which 
have appeared from time to time illustrative of the various 
episodes of his career — the whole forming a not uninter- 
esting epic, told in rough legendary art of the pre-Eaph- 
aelite type and making a quite unique adornment. But 
there is one piece in the collection, one chapter in the story 
thus told, that would now undoubtedly have for the world 
at large a much greater interest than all the rest. It is 
the smallest and oldest of the collection. It is of Mr. 
Fisk's own design and was executed at his own order and 
expense while as yet he had no dreams of the life that 
awaited him beyond the hills or of the peculiar interest 
that would one day flow back from him and hover 
around this earliest embodiment of his artistic and aesthe- 
tic sense. It is one of the original business cards with 
which he brought himself to the notice of the public in 



6 HIS FAMILY. 

his grand peddling enterprise. The cut opposite is a fac- 
simile. 

It is only quite recently that this house ceased to be the 
home of the family, they having always retained rooms 
here and made it their headquarters ever since it was built 
by the senior Fisk. But they are all gone from it now, 
the settlement of the two children elsewhere having broken 
up the family nucleus, leaving only its traditions to cluster 
about the homestead. The father was for a time con- 
cerned in some of the speculative schemes of the son, but 
ill health and the increasing weight of years having in- 
capacitated him for the cares of business, he now lives 
a life of retired leisure upon the competence which he 
amassed during his many years of business. Mr. Fisk's 
own mother died when he was a small child. His 
father soon married a second wife, a Brattleboro lady 
who was always much esteemed in the village where 
all her life has passed. His half sister was a very 
pretty and pleasing young lady, much liked and highly 
regarded by all who knew her down to the hour she 
was married and left her native village. 

The old residents of the place, the eye-witnesses of his 
childhood's days as they flowed quietly away, who can 
still vividly recall his boyhood, speak of James as having 
always been a pleasant, kind-hearted boy, with no bad 
traits, a general favorite, always wide-awake and lively, 
boiling over with animal spirits and fun, "rather rattle- 
headed and always full of his traps," always on hand and 



ON THE PEKDLEK, S CART. / 

conspicuous if anything was going on, and so well known 
for being quick-witted and sharp at repartee, that his 
advent in any circle was ever a signal for getting the 
laughing apparatus ready for use. 

Having no inclination to books or school, but being im- 
patient to enter the arena of active life and commence his 
battle with the world, he began while yet a boy to accom- 
pany his father in his peddling trips. This life had a great 
charm for him then, suiting his disposition and inclination 
exactly, and he at once displayed such a natural aptitude 
for it that his father soon consented to let him have a cart 
by himself and make trips alone over some of their routes. 
A very -few of these trips sufficed to show the son the 
better peddler of the two. By this division of their labor, 
acting upon separate lines, the amount of their sales was 
greatly increased, and it was not long before the father 
gave the son an interest in the business. He then imme- 
diately began to manifest the traits which have been so 
striking throughout his career and make him so conspicuous 
at the present time The carts were more gaudily painted, 
more spirited horses were driven and more showy harnesses 
were used. But the conservative nature and old-fashioned 
notions of the father repressed these inclinations and 
greatly hampered their full play. It was not long before 
their ideas as to the proper manner of conducting their 
business were radically different and inharmonious. The 
son favored great innovations and an extension of their 
operations, while the father was naturally contented with 



IN BUSINESS FOR HIMSELF. 



things as they were and regarded the schemes of James 
as boyish, wild and all nonsense. Dissatisfied with this 
state of things and impatient of the restraint which his 
father exercised over his burning ambition and projects, 
James, Jr., as the easiest remedy for all his difficulties and 
as the best and most effective way of settling all their dif- 
ferences, boldly proposed to buy out his father's interest 
in the business, boss it himself with undivided authority 
and conduct it wholly in accordance with his own ideas. 
Satisfactory terms were offered, a bargain was struck on 
the spot, Fisk senior came down from the cart as a part- 
ner and remounted it as his son's hired man at a very 
liberal salary. Instantly the whole appearance and or- 
ganization of things was changed as if by magic. The 
sole proprietor now determined to extend his operations, 
employ several men and send them out with carts as 
branches of his establishment, and reduce the business 
to a regular organized system- Two new four-horse 
carts, the most elegant that could be procured, one for 
himself and the other for his father, replaced those they 
had been using Eight horses, the most showy and 
spirited that could be obtained in the region famed for 
the finest " Blackhawks " and "Morgans," were secured 
for them ; and harnesses of the finest material with the 
most elegant and glittering mountings were made to 
order to be in keeping and complete the turnout. The 
carts used by his subordinates, though of course much 
smaller and less pretending than these two grand estab- 



THE NATIVES DAZZLED. 9 

lishments, were yet all after the same neat style, much 
more elegant than those ordinarily used by peddlers and 
such as to give a proper reflection of the grandeur of 
the resplendent central orb. 

When everything was ready for the first campaign 
under the new regime and all were drawn up together 
ready to start at the word of command, the quiet 
villagers of Brattleboro, — those who had ever been 
the playmates of the youthful commander, or given 
him a bloody nose in boyhood's battles; those who had 
sat round the hotel fire with him many a winter 
evening whittling sticks and getting off gibes ; his first 
little snub-nosed loves with whom he had sat on the 
front seat in the little schoolhouse and played puzzles 
with one eye on the teacher and to whom he had written 
and slyly passed along many such communications as, 
"Sal du me this er sum, look out not ter let ole specs 
kech yew duin it ur he wil swot my ers J, F, Jr, p s i luv 
yew an ma i go hum with yew arfter skool ter nite ; " those 
who had always spelt him down to the foot of his class on 
such words as peddler, cart, honor, modesty, shame, and 
judge, which he always spelt pedlur, kart, onur, mudesty, 
sham and jug ; those who had seen him tumble down and 
bump his nose in his first efforts to stand alone and walk ; 
the young and the old — all crowded round in their garb of 
many cuts and colors, with eyes and mouth agape in min- 
gled admiration and amazement and feeling not a little 
pride that the very neatest thing they had ever seen before, 



1(1 



THE FIRST SENSATION. 



even in the grand procession of Dan Rice's circus entering 
the village with the great brass band in a gorgeous chariot 
at the head, was now so completely eclipsed by their own 
modest little town. When the eyes of his fellow towns- 
people had gloated and been dazzled by a minute inspec- 
tion of every detail and he had drank sufficiently deep 
of the glory of the occasion, the great Hon of the hour 
mounted his grand cart, drew up the reins over his four 
nervous steeds, brought a graceful flourish of his long whip 
to an end in a loud snap and dashed out of the village of 
quaint beauty followed by his glittering retinue. James 
Fish, Jr., had created the first of his long series of grand 
sensations. How vast have been the contributions levied 
from many fields to feed the ever-growing flame lighted by 
that early scene in his village home, the world knows but 
too well ; but in all the many grand tableaux of which he 
has been the central figure — whether as admiral, resplen- 
dent in gold lace ; as colonel, the centre of a sunset pageant 
at Long Branch, or astride his mettlesome charger leading 
his regiment of braves up Broadway ; or as impressa/rio in 
his private box or standing at the head of the grand en- 
trance staircase in his marble palace as the throng flow in 
and out on successful nights in his theatre, the largest and 
most brilliantly gilded in America — it is doubtful if he has 
ever tingled in every tiniest nerve with such a keen relish 
of gratified pride and self-importance as on that bright 
morning when those whom he had always known gather- 
ed around him in their homely attire — perhaps the most 



UNFAVORABLE PREDICTIONS. 11 

respectable, honest and worthy company he has ever 
drawn together. The keen and delicious edge of the first 
enjoyment was more than sufficient to counterbalance the 
grander proportions of each succeeding repetition, and, 
moreover, there was a genuineness and sincerity in that 
first demonstration, while a mawkish curiosity and a smile 
of contempt have been the chief ingredients in all its suc- 
cessors, and no one knows better than Mr. Fisk how to 
appreciate this difference, notwithstanding that in the 
absence of the genuine he glories in the spurious. 

When the pageant had passed away and the gathering 
had scattered to their work and to talk over the great 
event, not a few of the staid old rustic spirits shook their 
heads dubiously, sagely predicting a disastrous end to 
such extravagance and giddiness, and slept the more 
soundly that night from the consciousness that they were 
not the young man's creditors, nor had their names on the 
back of any of his I IPs. But the subjects of these 
gloomy forebodings and misgivings saw not the clear 
vision and perfect confidence of the guiding spirit, which 
is the main element in every enterprise, nor foresaw the 
favorable consequence of conducting the business with ad- 
mirable organization and system. 

Mr. Fisk gave to each of his subordinates explicit di- 
rections as to the road to be followed for a week, and the 
route for each was laid out so that they would all come 
together and meet their commander every Saturday after- 
noon. Each then gave an account of his stewardship for 



12 PEDDLING SYSTEMATIZED. 

the week, and made known his wants in the way of new 
stock, etc. Some large town on the railroad, to which 
new goods could be ordered in advance to meet them from 
market, was always selected for the weekly rendezvous. 
The time from Saturday to Monday was devoted to bal- 
ancing accounts, refurnishing supplies, mapping out the 
courses and giving directions for the ensuing week. The 
smaller carts were sent out as skirmishers on either side to 
visit the more secluded regions and smaller villages, the 
main lines of travel and larger towns being reserved for 
the visitations of the two larger and more imposing es- 
tablishments. The amount of business done and the ac- 
count sales for each week under this plan of operations 
were many times as large as those of an ordinary country 
merchant. Indeed, many of the latter class of tradesmen 
bought much of their stock of Mr. Pisk instead of going 
or sending to market themselves, so that he was in reality, 
and to no small extent, what his card announced — a 
"jobber " in the trade. 

When on the road in these trips he always drove in a 
dashing style at the rate of ten miles an hour and never 
failed to attract everybody's attention. Men working in 
the field rested from their toil to watch him as he passed ; 
the inmates of every house ran to the windows to catch a 
sight of the grand turnout and held up their babies to 
look and cease crying. As he came flying into a village 
and drew up at a store or tavern, all the children gathered 
round at once to gaze in admiration — every boy resolving 



ON THE EOAD. 13 

that when he grew up to be a man he would have just 
such a cart and go peddling, every girl feeling sad at the 
misfortune which shut her out from all the pleasure of the 
same ambition and resolve and left her only the cold com- 
fort of vowing it should be a man who looked and did 
just like that she would have for her husband. Country 
lasses peered coyly through the shutters or from behind 
the curtains, wondering if he would call at their house, 
their innocent hearts rising to the mouth and falling 
back again with the alternations of increasing prospect 
or parting hope. The women admired, men envied 
'and were deferential, and he in turn was gracious 
and affable, always jocose, scattering pennies and candy 
among the children, bewitching smiles among the sweet- 
sixteens, and consternation among their mammas. In a 
word, he was a great gun generally — the biggest gun ever 
seen in the towns he visited. And now that he is so fa- 
mous and his early career is known to thousands by 
hearsay quite as well as by those who witnessed it, it is 
surprising how many there are in every town within a 
hundred miles of which he ever travelled in those days 
who have a most vivid remembrance and give the most 
minute description of just how he looked and the appear- 
ance and sensation he used to make when he drove by on 
their road, though he never set foot in the town. 

It is the fashion with certain journalists to refer to this 
period of Mr. Fish's life in a sneering tone, as though it 
implied disgrace or discredit, and to indulge little flings 



14 UNWORTHY SNEERS. 

about " pe .idling shirt button?," etc. The sneer is a mean 
and unwarranted one, and destroys the force of whatever 
is said in connection with it by disclosing an unworthy 
animus and a disinclination to " give even the devil his 
due." There may have been some dealings on a petty 
scale in his business at this time, as there are in the deal- 
ings of nearly every tradesman in the world, not except- 
ing those whose palatial stores cover acres of ground, em- 
ploy armies of clerks, and constitute an object of pride to 
the largest city on the continent, as being without an 
equal in the world. There is more petty dealing in the 
business of nineteen out of every twenty tradesmen in 
the world than there was in Mr. Fisk's peddling business, 
so the fling cast at him applies with greater force to them 
and should be used only when it is intended to express 
contempt for all tradesmen as a class — a thing which the 
said journalists would not dare to do. The influence of 
such a training upon the mental, moral and social traits is 
undoubtedly very different from that exerted by a college 
course and the liberal professions ; but if this be a fault 
or just cause for a sneer, it applies to the vast majority of 
men — including many great journalists as well ; and cer- 
tain it is that if all the little affairs in the past private 
life of certain exceedingly snobbish " renegade English- 
men," who seem to take most delight in these flings, and 
think there is great force and virtue in them, were laid 
bare to the public tliey would be much more obnoxious 
to sneers and have much greater cause for mortification 



HIS EARLY RECORD. « 15 

than has Mr. Fish for anything in his Brattleboro record. 
There is no other period of his career so free from taint,. 
so much to his credit. He drove the best bargain he 
could, as do all tradesmen, for that is their business ; but 
no charge of unfair dealing was ever made against him 
at this time. It is but fair to accept the opinion enter- 
tained of a man by those with whom he has lived and 
dealt and who know him most intimately ; and when Mr. 
Fisk left Brattleboro no damaging reputation or gossip 
attached to his name but he left behind him a good 
record in all his relations to life and society. It is as un- 
just as it is unnecessary to fling mud upon such a record 
for anything that has since happened. 



CHAPTEE II. 

THE BOSTON DRYGOODS CLERK THE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR 

ADMITTED TO THE FIRM OF JORDAN, MARSH &■ CO A MON- 

• OPOLY RUNNING COTTON THROUGH THE LINES INCOMPAT- 
IBILITIES HE RETIRES FROM THE FIRM. 

The drygoods used by Mr. Fisk in his business at 
Brattleboro were purchased of the young Boston house 
of Jordan, Marsh & Co. This firm was not only im- 
pressed by the frequent large bills of goods which their 
young customer from Vermont purchased but was also 
struck by his general bearing and manner of doing busi- 
ness. Detecting in him abilities worthy of a higher and 
larger sphere of action, and perhaps spurred on by the more 
self-interested desire to secure the abilities of such a 
stirring man in their firm, they suggested his aban- 
doning peddling and entering their establishment as a 
salesman. There was much about his peddling business 
that was very congenial to such a nature as his and he 
liked it not a little. There was constant change, variety 
and moderate excitement in the life, constant opportunity 
for indulging his inclination to s]>ort and jokes; he was 



WITH JORDAN, MARSH & CO. 17 

his own master, wholly independent ; and, above all, he 
was very conspicuous, the cynosure of all eyes, the centre 
of an almost constant sensation — an aliment indispen- 
sable to his contentment. But his style of living and 
conducting his business was extravagant for such a trade. 
He hated and would not practise that rigid economy 
which alone could make it a paying enterprise. His 
expenses were so great that the promise of pecuniary 
success was not good. For this reason, as well as for the 
attraction there naturally would be for a man of his 
temperament in passing from a peddler's cart to a very 
large wholesale house, and from a home in the country 
to life in a great city, the proposition of the Boston firm 
was at once accepted. With that promptitude which is 
one of his most marked traits, he wound up his business 
at Brattleboro immediately and entered the house of 
Jordan, Marsh & Co. on a salary. 

The inexorable laws of his nature here exhibited them- 
selves very strikingly at once, and in a manner as unex- 
pected to himself as to his employers. The salesman 
seemed entirely out of his element. The young man's 
energy seemed to have suddenly collapsed. " Drum- 
ming" customers was a work he instinctively recoiled 
from and could not do. Exhibiting goods and talking 
a man into a purchase suited him no better. It had an 
air of pettiness, servitude and dependence that grated 
harshly upon every fibre of his spirit. There was no 
eclat or dash about it. It was a fall from the position he 



18 • THE DBYGOODS CLEEK. 

had enjoyed in the country, where people came to him 
and wanted to buy, where he bossed and gave orders and 
managed things with a great flourish, and was looked up 
to by all as being a grand affair. Now he was insig- 
nificant, swallowed up in a great establishment with 
many gradations of clerks, where he was bossed and had 
to take orders. He felt the change. Leaving the coun- 
try for the city seemed to have been a great mistake. 
The prince of country peddlers had been spoiled to make 
a very poor city salesman. In short, his first six months 
in Boston were a complete failure and at the end of that 
time the firm advised him to return to his peddling bus- 
iness as being that for which he was best adapted, and 
in which he would meet with most success. But here 
another marked trait of his character and nature asserted 
itself and appeared in bold relief. He is not a man to 
acknowledge failure in anything he undertakes. His is 
one .of those spirits that much prefer to fight on un- 
daunted against every obstacle rather than brook such a 
thought as returning to what has once been laid aside to 
go up higher. In this first trying circumstance of his 
hie he acted from that impulse and instinct within him 
which has ever been his trusted and unquestioned guide, 
the one light by which his steps have been directed 
through all his remarkable career. To the suggestion 
of the firm he replied " Give me a fair chance, Mr. 
Jordan. Don't be discouraged too quick. Try mi' six 
months more. If you are dissatisfied at the end of that 



HIS OPPORTUNITY COMES. 19 

time, I shall be glad to quit. I'm not particular about 
any salary. I'm willing to accept a commission on my 
sales for my pay. Only let me have a fair chance." 
There was something in his manner that inspired hope 
and confidence and his request was readily granted. 
He had not the slightest tangible reason except the 
vague but potent something within, like Sheridan's " It's 
in me and it shall come out ! " for indulging such hope 
and cherishing such faith. He had not the remotest 
definite idea how his salvation was to be wrought out. 
His hour came, however, and then he speedily justified 
his wisdom in following impulse. 

The war broke out. He saw in a flash that this was 
his opportunity and he instantly embraced it. The gov- 
ernment must have large supplies of woolen and cotton 
fabrics and there were large and very profitable contracts 
to be given to somebody. This was enough for him to 
know. Here was attractive game, a foeman worthy of his 
steel. The spirit that chafed at being an inconspicuous 
salesman and felt humbled and ashamed to go about 
" drumming " small purchasers, here saw something the 
management and securing of which would make him a 
man of some importance both with his firm and with 
those whom he had to approach. It required abilities, 
tact, liberal ideas, was on a scale sufficiently grand to 
gratify vanity, the profits sure to be derived were im- 
mense, and when once secured he would only have to 
give orders and directions and not attend personally to 



20 GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS. 

small affairs of detail. For these prizes Mr. Fisk was one 
of the earliest, most active and most successful contes- 
tants. He foresaw all, scented his trail, and set about 
accomplishing - his design before anything of the hind had 
occured to the firm. He soon secured several lai-ge con- 
tracts for his house and they speedily changed their opin- 
ion as to the advisability of his returning to peddling. 
The man's peculiar genius 

•• -for ways that are dark, 

And for tricks that are vain," 

came into full play and shone in all its brilliancy in 
securing the first contract. It is said that a Boston lady, 
through the influence of one of the Massachusetts Sena- 
tors, had obtained a large contract for supplying under- 
clothing for the army and had already disposed of a 
portion of the contract to a prominent Boston house. Mr. 
Fisk at once set to work to secure a graceful introduction 
to this lady of much consequence, succeeded, and ingra- 
tiated himself with her so speedily that he induced her to 
annul the sub-contract she had already given out and 
award it to his rival firm instead. Other contracts soon 
followed from the same source and the profits accruing to 
Jordan, Marsh & Co. therefrom were immense. 

This stroke, though brilliant and successful, was soon 
quite eclipsed by another. The firm had quite a large 
quantity of blankets that had been on their hands for a 
long time and which were now stowed away in one of the 
lofts and regarded as dead stock. An idea struck James 



A TRIP TO WASHINGTON. 21 

one day. He went immediately to the head of the firm 
and simply said "Mr. Jordan, I'm going to sell those 
blankets up in the loft." Nothing more explicit in re- 
gard to his designs or the idea he had conceived could be 
got out of him ; but it had now begun to be felt that 
when James said he was going to do anything he would 
do it, and so, with a smile that was a mixture of hope and 
incredulity, he was answered, "All right! Gro ahead 
and sell them for anything you can get." The next train 
for Washington carried James Fisk, Jr., among its pas- 
sengers. The next morning of course James Fisk, Jr., 
was registered at Willard's. Of course he had one of 
Willard's best suites and lived in as free and sumptuous 
style as Willard's generous larder and capacious wine 
cellar permitted. It is of course that he did all this, for he 
never had done, and by the laws of his nature never could 
do, anything on any other than a grand scale, in the best 
style, in a manner sure to attract attention. Strange 
though it may seem, the doors of that suite of rooms were 
not closed to quartermasters, congressmen, or any one of 
position or influence among the powers that were. If 
any such came they were admitted as readily and made 
as welcome as any one else to all the hospitalities. There 
was great popping of corks, the sparkling goblets passed 
freely round, the landlord filled the flowing bowl and 
kept it running over, everybody enjoyed life, and 

" Jim Fisk is a. jolly good fellow " 
was nightly sung with great gusto by a company in the 



£Z AT WIL1.ARD S. 

usual hilarious mood iu which that tune becomes a great 
favorite. The host while overseeing every desire sup- 
plied, joined in the "flow of soul," got off innumerable 
puns as if free from every care, 

li And he smiled as Lcsat by the I able 
With a smile that was child-like and bland." 

At length, as one of those incidents in which conversation 
around the social bowl is ever fruitful, it casually leaked 
out that there was great need of blankets of a certain 
kind for the army. As a must fortunate coincidence, Mr. 
Fisk happened to have a hundred or two with him as 
samples of some he could furnish to supply the pressing 
want. He produced them for inspection with an air of 
much indifference and. as he did so, facetiously quoted 
Artemas Ward's famous pill-box label, " For such people 
as like this kind of pills, these are just the pills they 
ought to take." A joke and a laugh is said often to go 
much further than logic in swaying a jury. Whether 
facetiousness be equally potent with quartermasters is 
not so well settled, but there is in this case some further 
indication that human nature is ever the same under all 
circumstances — whether in the jury box or under a 
quartermaster-general's uniform. Happy result — all 
those old blankets stowed away in Jordan, Marsh & Co.'s 
loft were not only disposed of for three times as much as 
the firm would gladly have taken for them, but they 
also got a contract for a further supply of a million or 
more dollars in value, and their house must have realized 



LOOKING OUT FOR NO. 1. 23 

between two and three hundred thousand dollars as the 
result of this little pleasure trip to Washington. 

It will readily be surmised that Mr. Fisk was not a 
man that would be likely to overlook the fact that he who 
could secure for his employers contracts from which the 
larger portion of their profits was derived, contracts for 
which any number of houses stood ready to pay an 
immense sum, was a man of no small consequence to the 
firm and had some rights which they were bound to 
respect, nor was it at all unnatural under the circum- 
stances that he should feel it might be just as well for him 
to turn the opportunity to his own behoof. In short, soon 
after securing his earliest government contracts, the 
quondam country peddler boldly announced to the firm 
one morning that he had a no less ambitious and presum- 
ing desire than that of being immediately admitted into 
the partnership. The members laughed. It was one of 
James's little jokes, they thought, and was very good in 
its way. Of course it was too preposterous to be intended 
seriously, thought they. A joke ? Not a bit of it ! — un- 
less they made it so, and then it would be a joke the hu- 
morous side of which they would not at all relish. They 
speedily woke to a consciousness that James meant busi- 
ness. They found he held the balance of power, saw his 
opportunity, and had the disposition and nerve to make 
the most of it. He had been shrewd enough to secure 
certain contracts in his own name instead of the name of 
the firm, consequently he could dispose of them as he 



24 ADMITTED TO PARTNERSHIP. 

pleased. If they would not, there were other first class 
houses that would gladly give him a partnership for the 
contracts he could secure for whatever house he was with, 
so they could have their choice between taking him in as a 
partner or seeing contracts worth hundreds of thousands 
of dollars carried off from their door to some rival house. 
He did not care It was only to oblige them, not himself, 
that he wished to become a member of their firm. But 
from his ultimatum there was no escape. Aut Ocesar aut 
nullus ! A partner or quit ! The comic smile which the 
preposterous demand at first raised disappeared instanter. 
A little consultation was held in which nothing of the 
humorous entered, and soon the crisis was settled. A 
new name, James Fisk, Jr., was thenceforth included in 
the elastic " Co." of Jordan, Marsh & Co. 

The new sense of dignity, importance and power which 
naturally came with the consciousness of being a partner 
in one of the largest establishments in New England, in 
no wise diminished the confidence, zeal and boldness of 
the new member. Large contracts continued to flow in 
to their house as the fruit of his tact and energy, and 
very soon the business of the firm showed various signs 
of the infusion of new blood into its veins. Mr. Fisk, 
never having studied Bowen's Political Economy, was 
happy in the possession of a mind wholly unclouded by 
any befogged metaphysical abstractions about the beauty, 
simplicity and great advantage to humanity, resulting 
from the division of labor, and he therefore clearly saw 



NEW ENTERPRISE. 



25 



that by manufacturing their own goods, instead of buying 
them from manufacturers and agents, his firm could add 
the manufacturer's profit to their own, and would also in 
that way be able to undersell rival houses that bought 
instead of manufacturing their goods, and thus largely 
increase the amount of their sales and profits. Accord- 
ingly he urged this course upon his firm. At first it was. 
looked upon skeptically, but was tried in a small way as 
an experiment. The experiment was a grand success. 
The new member stuck a new red feather in his cap and 
was in his glory. The firm now bought several cotton 
and woolen mills, built as many more new ones, operated 
them at a profit that seemed almost fabulous in some 
cases, and thus for other hundreds of thousands of dol- 
lars were indebted to the originality and quick percep- 
tions of the man whose, name still rested in the oblivion 
of the now important "Co." 

A single stroke at this period of his career disclosed 
all those striking mental qualities which have conduced 
so greatly to his later exploits — an intuitive perception of 
a whole situation almost instantly, an immediate resolve, 
a nerve and daring to do anything, and the greatest 
celerity of action. Being in New York on one occasion, 
and smiffing afar off the first indications and knowledge 
that there was likely to be a great demand soon for a 
certain kind of goods, and knowing or learning that 
there was but one mill in the country where such goods 
were manufactured, he immediately telegraphed his firm 



26 HIS FIRST "COMTEK." 

to send an agent to Gaysville, Vt., to buy that mil] at any 
price demanded, and at the same time he bought up all 
the goods of that kind to be had in the market. The firm 
had now learned to obey the laconic and even mysterious 
directions of James as unhesitatingly as Napoleon's sub- 
ordinates obeyed his every word. The agent was sent as 
the telegram ordered and the coveted mill was purchased 
at a fair price. In less than an hour after the bargain was 
closed, the former owner received a telegram from New 
York offering him $5,000 more than the price at which 
he had sold it, But it was too late. Fi.-k had been too 
quick for them. Jordan, Marsh & Co. had an entire 
monopoly and controlled the market. James Fisk, Jr., 
had got up his first "corner" and engineered it through 
to entire success. After running the mill some two 
years at an annual profit of upwards of $100,000, the 
Boston firm resold it to the former owner. 

Another project, and one which, in point of ethics, the 
difficulties besetting it and the means by which it was to 
be accomplished, savored more strongly ot the character of 
his later and well-known exploits, now suggested itself to 
the versatile dry goods man. Cotton was selling in New 
York and Boston at $1.70 to $1.80 the pound, and there 
was but very little to be had even at those figures. Yet 
within the Confederate lines cotton was abundant and 
was a dead weight which the owners were as anxious to 
dispose of as the New England mills were to obtain, and 
that at figures almost as far in one extreme as the ruling 



COTTON SPECULATION. 27 

prices outside of the Confederacy were in the other. 
Query in Mr. Fisk's mind — how could these two facts be 
made to work together for good to those who loved the 
fortune lying between ? Two difficulties were in the way. 
To most minds they would have seemed wholly insur- 
mountable ; but not so to the man to whom nothing seems 
impossible when only human beings are to be managed. 
All sentimental nonsense about there being a moral ele- 
ment in the problem, the right and wrong of giving aid 
and comfort to the enemies of his country, violating the 
laws of blockade, etc., Mr. Fisk dismissed at once in great 
contempt as worthy only of some brain-cracked lunatic, 
and immediately addressed himself to the practical ques- 
tions, how to get cotton through the lines without its 
being seized by the government authorities as contraband, 
and how the delicate and perilous business of buying and 
forwarding inside the Confederacy could be conducted. 
He paid a visit to Tennessee, the point where the lines 
must be passed and the region where cotton was plenty. 
The government superintendent of the railroads here hap- 
pened to be a man that he had formerly known in Boston. 
This was most fortunate. The tarry at Memphis was 
brief and he returned with a mind evidently at ease on 
one point. The hare could be cooked, and in this case 
that was more difficult than to catch it Boring a tunnel 
through Hoosac Mountain requires ten years or more, and 
many lives. The seemingly impassable barriers between 
two hostile territories engaged in a life and death struggle 



28 



KfUMNG THE GAUNTLET. 



Mr. Fisk pierced in a day and night so as to let the golden 
light shine through. The machine by which this unpar- 
alleled feat of tunnelling was accomplished has never been 
patented — perhaps for the reason that no one but the in- 
ventor could ever use it, so a patent would be useless. Its 
exact nature is therefore wholly a matter of inference. 
The remaining branch of the problem was now taken up 
and in the solution of this there was displayed a knowledge 
of human nature as keen and sagacious as that which is 
supposed to have carried General Grant through at the 
head of our armies so triumphantly. To buy cotton inside 
the rebel lines under such ticklish circumstances required 
a person of great tact and intuitive judgment of men and 
circumstances, and for this duty a woman admirably 
adapted to the purpose was employed. To collect and for- 
ward it when purchased was a work still more thickly 
beset with difficulties and pitfalls at every step, to elude 
the suspicions flying in front and rear, run the gauntlet 
of wary sentinels and get the forbidden fruit safely 
through to some market in the North. A single false 
step might defeat the whole project, sink all the capital 
invested, and involve the person found thus engaged in no 
slight danger of his personal liberty for a term of years. 
To brave all these risks and dangers and undertake these 
delicate duties, Mr. Fisk secured the services of his own 
father. The venture is supposed by those who pretend to 
know, to have been a very profitable one pecuniarily. 

One of the noblest and most inspiring spectacles ever 



A NOBLE DEED. ' 29 

witnessed in Boston, and one which those who witnessed 
it will never forget, was largely due to the originality and 
exertions of Mr. Fisk. The news of the battle of Antie- 
tam, in September, 1862, reached Boston on Sunday 
morning. When the Sabbath school bells rang on the 
bright lovely morning, all hearts were appalled by tidings 
that sent the death shadow into many a home and told of 
thousands of brave men suffering the agonies of a bloody 
battle field. Mr. Fish and his partner, Mr. Jordan, con- 
ceived the idea of having the churches suspend services 
and devote themselves to the practical religion of relieving 
the suffering of the men who had fallen for them. The 
idea caught like magic. The churches were closed, the 
citizens forgot self and put forth every exertion to miti- 
gate the suffering of the wounded and dying. Tremont 
Temple was. transformed into a depot for the collection of 
hospital supplies. Delicate ladies worked all the day long 
with the devotion and enthusiasm peculiar to the sex in 
the hour of great trials and suffering. Lint bandages, 
and the necessities for binding up the gaping wounds, 
wines and all the delicacies that could mitigate the suffer- 
ings of the fallen in the hospital, jaoured in from every 
direction, each household contributing according to its 
means. It was a scene which made it hard for any be- 
holder to repress the tears, and suddenly threw into bold 
relief all the noblest traits of humanity. By nightfall 
many carloads of supplies were on their way to the field 
of suffering. Mr. Fisk worked in this as he does in every- 



30 CHAPERON JO GEN. M'CLKLLAN. 

thing, with all his might, superintending and directing; 
and when this (perhaps his noblest) day's work was done 
he said, with an excusable pride and satisfaction, " There! 
what will New York say of Boston now /" 

During these years and enterprises, Mr. Fisk was of 
course quite prominent after his peculiar fashion, always 
living in the sumptuous, regardless-of-expense style, and it 
was at this period that he saw the best society he has ever 
mingled with familiarly. His contempt for the most car- 
dinal laws of decent social life had not then been openly 
manifested. He maintained a respectable attitude to the 
relations deemed most sacred by all decent people, and the 
doors of society of the middle class were open to him and 
his family. When General McClellan visited Boston on his 
tour to New England soon after receiving the famous or- 
der to report at Baltimore, Mr. Fisk was quite conspicuous 
and active in doing the honors for Boston on that occasion, 
met the distinguished visitor on quite familiar terms, and 
is said to have ingratiated himself not a little with the 
hero of the Chickahominy Swamps. 

The house of Jordan, Marsh & Co., already prominent 
among the Boston firms when Mr. Fisk entered it, had, 
during the four years of his connection with it, rapidly 
grown to be one of the very foremost and probably now 
stood at the head of the list in extent of business done and 
profits realized. They not only gathered the same rich 
harvest in the doubling, trebling, quadrupling or mure, in 
value of the large stocks of goods on hand, but they had 



DISTANCE LENDS ENCHANTMENT. 31 

also secured in addition to their regular business many 
enormously profitable goyernment contracts, and had en- 
gaged extensively in manufacturing at just the time when 
this was most remunerative and when a single mill brought 
a fine fortune annually. For many of the richest contribu- 
tions to this immense pool they were indebted directly and 
solely to Mr. Fish, and it is probable that his abilities had 
a greater influence than those of any other one man in the 
firm, if not more than all the rest united, in swelling the 
grand total of wealth they had accumulated during these 
four eventful years. However this may be, it was not 
long before it became evident that, at the rate things were 
going, the firm of Jordan, Marsh & Co. would soon come 
to mean what the Erie Railway has since come to mean 
and just Avhat everything with which this spirit is connect- 
ed is sure soon to mean — James Fish, Jr. A man of such 
strongly marked individuality cannot be long kept in a 
position of secondary authority and influence in anything 
he is connected with. His voice must be the potent one, 
his will the ruling force, or else there will be trouble at 
once. While the era of government contracts and large 
outside speculative enterprises continued, this was his spe- 
cial field, and while thus engaged he was necessarily away 
much of the time at a distance that lent enchantment and 
was not brought into such close personal contact with 
the other members of the firm daily as to make his pe- 
culiar propensities felt unpleasantly ; but as this era waned 
he was brought more constantly in personal contact with 



32 INCOMPATABILITIES. 

his partners. The very qualities which had made him 
their most valuable man when government contracts were 
plenty, stocks rising, and a smile of prosperity rested over 
everything, were precisely the most dangerous ones to be 
influenced by now when business had become unsettled 
and hazardous, making it necessary to take in much of the 
sail that had been spread before the favorable and reliable 
breeze and manage all affairs with the utmost care and 
caution. His bold, venturesome, impulsive spirit now 
clashed at once with the cautious counsels of his partners 
and the man's individuality and dominant traits were at 
once felt in their full force. His native confidence, self- 
assertion and persistence in his own impulses and will, 
were not lessened of course by the consciousness of the im- 
portant part he had played in the very successful career of 
the firm. It became evident at once that either the men 
whose names alone appeared upon the sign boards, must 
change place in importance with a single name covered up 
under the " Co.," and they be forced to accept a back seat 
while that ruling spirit stood chiefly at the helm, or else 
that spirit must be exorcised from the concern entirely. 
The latter was the alternative chosen and this proved not 
to be difficult of accomplishment. The firm freely ad- 
mitted the great value Mr. Fisk's services had been to the 
house and they were willing to deal generously with him 
if he would now withdraw. He, on the other hand, con- 
fident of his own fertility of resources under any circum- 
stances, cared not a rush about remaining in the firm pro- 



HE RETIRES FROM THE EIRM. 33 

vided he were paid what he deemed a fair sum to quit. 
Such being the spirit on either side, the question was 
easily settled and the man who had entered the establish- 
ment at one end as a salesman four years ago now made 
his exit at the other end as a partner, retiring with what 
he would have considered a princely fortune in his ped- 
dling days, and also carrying with him the satisfaction of 
knowing that he had been the most important element in 
the unrivalled success of a great firm during four most 
eventful years. 



CHAPTER III. 

A DRYGOODS MERCHANT UNSUCCESSFUL VENTURES A ROLLING 

STONE MISFORTUNES THICKEN A FORETASTE OF RUIN 

THE GODDESS SMILES AGAIN THE APPROPRIATE SPHERE AT 

LAST A MILLIONAIRE. 

Mr. Fisk withdrew from the firm of Jordan, Marsh & 
Co. possessed of what would have been quite a comfort- 
able fortune to retire upon for a man having no heir 
apparent. But he was not one of the retiring kind. 
Activity and bustle as a man of affairs are as neccessary 
to his contentment as is oxygen to his lungs. He 
immediately resolved to continue in the trade and 
establish a business of his own that should rival that of 
the house in which he had served such a brilliant appren- 
ticeship. In a surprisingly short time a large new sign 
bearing the name of James Fisk, Jr., appeared over the 
doors of a fine large store at the corner of Sumner and 
Chauncey Streets — a conspicuous building in a conspicu- 
ous part of the city, within a stone's throw of the house 
from which he had just separated. To build up a dry- 
goods jobbing business by himself would not have been 



THE DRYGOODS MERCHANT. 35 

an easy matter under any circumstances, and it was 
especially difficult just at that period. The constant and 
rapid rise in the price of fabrics, which had made the 
business so very prosperous and safe during the past four 
years, had reached its climax and the ebbing tide had set 
in and raised the reflex wave that introduced such great 
uncertainty and hazard into the trade and was destined to 
bury not a few beneath it in its fitful motions. The task 
that had been undertaken was as difficult as to stand on a 
barrel and roll it with the feet. Government contracts, in 
which his previous success had largely consisted, were no 
longer to be had, for the authorities were now confident 
of a speedy termination of the war and were retrenching 
expenditures. Manufacturing was at a standstill or was 
prosecuted only at a loss. Building up a regular legiti- 
mate jobbing trade was not at all in Mr. Fisk's vein. 
He felt for its duties the same aversion he had felt for 
" drumming " during his early months in Boston and let 
it alone in the same way. His attention and efforts being 
thus left unengrossed by the undertaking he had proposed 
for himself, he engaged in various speculative enterprises, 
not only such as were partially allied to his ostensible 
business (as cotton) but in anything that suggested itself 
to him or was presented in a favorable light and promised 
the requisite elements of diversion with a fair chance of 
profit. But everything was paralyzed and stagnant under 
reaction from the stimulant which the war had afforded, 
and all business that required the investment of capital 



36 DULL TIMES. 

seemed destined to entail loss. It was the most critical 
period of dread suspense when everything was unsettled 
and under a lowering future, and a tremor was running 
through all business in expectation of a great financial 
crash. Drygoods began to tumble at such leaps that any 
considerable stock on hand meant a small fortune lost 
every month. His speculative ventures rarely proved 
successful, often were bad failures. After a few months 
of this precarious fortune, again yielding to impulse and 
instinct rather than convictions reached by reflection and 
calculation, he resolved to close up his business and go 
out of the trade. This resolution to discontinue was exe- 
cuted with the same celerity as had been the former one 
to start by himself. The fortune drawn out from the 
firm of Jordan, Marsh & Co. had melted rapidly in the 
unprosperous months succeeding, but he settled up all 
his affairs leaving no unpaid obligations. 

There is a certain famous being or character, half 
historic, half fabulous, favored in the fancy of both poet 
and theologian, who, it is positively alleged, is always 
sure to claim his own sooner or later. James Fisk, Jr., 
went to New York. He allowed "natur" to take its 
course now, and as naturally as the needle dips to the 
pole or the force of gravity draws all things towards the 
earth's centre, he brought up in Wall Street — the favorite 
haunt of the worst breed of gamblers the world has yet 
produced — men whom one who knows them best* has 

* Vanderbilfc. 



"THE DEVIL CLAIMS HIS 0WNV 6i 

called "a set of thieves and cutthroats," every one of 
whose transactions leaves the world so much the worse 
off, and whose most fitting and forcible commentary is to 
be read in the fact that if every one of them were to drop 
out of existence instantly society and every honest call- 
ing would be greatly benefited. It was with the men of 
this ilk that the ex-drygoodsman now proposed to put 
his lance in rest and measure swords. All the world 
will admit the wisdom and appropriateness of the course 
selected as one for which he was eminently adapted. It 
was just the course Fowler would have advised him to 
pursue had he gone to him and had his head examined. 
In fact, so very natural and appropriate seems this migra- 
tion to the great focus of respectable gambling and legal- 
ized robbery that the only wonder is that he did not gra- 
vitate to the genial clime and kindred, though inferior, 
spirits immediately on leaving Jordan, Marsh & Co. 
instead of first attempting to found a drygoods establish- 
ment. He has taught them many a lesson at their own 
tricks and it is questionable if the world at large does not 
owe him more gratitude than execration for the deeds 
that have made him 

" By merit raised to that bad eminence " 
among such leeches and pests. 

It was in the waning months of 1864 that the resolu- 
tion was taken to shake off the Puritan dust and pass 
from the shadow of Bunker Hill to that of Trinity 
Church. He still had sufficient capital to operate quite 



38 THE BOLDNESS OF INNOCENCE. 

extensively on a " margin," the broker's most cunning 
decoy duck to bring game within his reach. He took 
offices on Broad Street and furnished them in the most 
sumptuous style, the man's individuality providing some 
original features found in no other office. He launched 
out boldly and almost haphazard in all the leading stocks 
and most active speculative enterprises, putting up his 
margins in pretty much the same way that he would 
place his "chips" in roulette or faro, thus at once dis- 
closing his just conception of the character of the business. 
But in his first experience in the new field there seemed to 
hover over him the same untoward fortune that beset his 
last months in Boston and the proverbially fickle goddess 
seemed to havo turned her smile and face from him 
entirely. He was not yet fully awake to the genius of 

the guild 

" for ways that are dark " 

and the artful dodges by which things were moved in 
Wall Street. He had heard of "honor among thieves" 
and in his unsophisticated confidence in human nature 
could not suspect that his new associates were sunk 60 
far beneath even faro bank and roulette keepers in point 
of honor as to play with stacked cards and loaded dice. 
The scales had not yet all fallen from his eyes. He still 
had some fingering, verdant, boyish, Puritan, nonsense 
about there really being such things as honor and hon- 
esty, actually believed that there was such a crime as 
robbery or fraud known to the law and that it would lead 



THE. VICTIM OF BULLS AND BEA.BS. 



a man to the State Prison. His senses must be quick- 
ened in the severe crucible of burnt fingers before he 
could fully emerge from these hallucinations imbibed in 
his early country home and understand that all this was 
but a name, a poetic fiction, a ridiculous Yankee notion 
probably invented by the same man who first sold 
wooden nutmegs. He is one of the aptest scholars in 
such a school and he plunged his fingers into the molten 
metal so boldly that he was not long in dispelling the 
clouds of rustic innocence that obscured the light. He 
made some successes, as all do ; he made many more 
losses, as most do. It was but a few months before his 
margins were all swept away, his bank account cancelled, 
and the remnant of a once comfortable fortune which he 
had brought from Boston had wholly disappeared — gone 
the way of so many others before and since. The young 
man who had always had means and known plenty pro- 
portionate to his position and needs, who had constantly 
risen in worldly condition till his days had passed in 
familiar contact with men of high position, authority 
and influence and he felt himself a man of consequence 
and power established on a secure pedestal that could 
not be seriously shaken by fickle fortune, suddenly found 
himself penniless when his daily wants had grown to 
be very large, his fancied power and security broken 
and gone in a flaw of wind, despair driving its pitiless 
arrows through his breast, helpless and unresisting in 



40 



the surging tide that was sweeping him down in its 
merciless whirlpool — ruined ! 

Such a spectacle is always sad and touching. No 
matter who or what the man in whose breast the terrible 
emotions of such an hour are passing, they touch a 
responsive chord of sympathy in the great heart of aggre- 
gate impersonal humanity as though it saw its own 
uncertainties and possible misfortunes typified therein. 
It is a situation whose agony in all its fullness can be but 
faintly imagined by one who has never felt the dread 
creeping coil of misfortune and ruin closing silently and 
fatally around, want, suffering and all the horrors of 
poverty gathering on every side, gnawing ceaselessly at 
the very vitals of the inner life and making death at 
one's own hand the one welcome relief from despair. 
It is a situation to be met with only in the life of a 
great cosmopolitan city. 

For a moment (and perhaps it is the only instance in 
all his life) this man of singular experiences knew the 
keenest pangs of despair, became pensive and introspective 
and indulged a momentary meditation upon the vanity 
and mutability of human affairs. But it was only for a 
moment. His is not a spirit to sit down and acknowledge 
irretrievable failure. JVil desperandum ! "Never say 
die ! " is his motto and it is one to which he is eminently 
entitled. As he sat overlooking the street of world-wide 
fame and gazed down upon its hurrying throng, of which 
but yesterday he was one, half dreaming what to do, the 



WALL STREET SHALL PAY FOR IT. 41 

pangs of failure piercing him, the spectre of want 
glaring at him, suddenly, as if himself unconscious of 
his words, he blurted out, — " Wall Street has ruined me, 
and Wall Street shall pay for it!" At the time, the 
words seemed the weak ravings of a mind in despair — a 
vain boast that might well provoke a smile. But that the 
threat of vengeance has been well redeemed "Wall Street 
bitterly knows and will not soon forget. Jena was not 
more thoroughly avenged at Sedan, the mortification of 
Berlin not more thoroughly atoned by Bismarck and 
the troops of Fatherland marching in triumph through 
the gates of Paris. Nor rests Wall Street in a feeling 
of assurance that the thirst for revenge is even yet 
fully sated. At the moment of uttering these words he of 
course had as little idea as any one how they were to be 
made good. He had not the most remote conception of 
any plan for recuperating his broken fortune but, genius- 
like, confidence of a power within him to do it, though 
vague, was there. The threat was hardly cold upon 
his lips ere he bade adieu — " for a season " — to the 
threatened street, packed a carpet bag, which sufficed his 
purpose now, and started for Boston, aimless except to 
get away from the scene of his disaster. 

On this journey to " the Hub " the victim of Wall 
Street did not sit in moody silence moaning to himself 
over his bleeding wounds but presented an unruffled sur- 
face as though everything was all right, mingled in con- 
versation with his usual spirits and puns, and made 



42 A CAR ACaUAINTANCK. 

chance acquaintances as every one does when travelling. 
Among those with whom he thus got to talking was a 
young man who seemed sorely troubled and dejected. 
Perhaps it was animal magnetism that drew the two to- 
gether, for however calm the surface with the late opera- 
tor in stocks he was probably somewhat bilious down in 
the depths. The two spirits naturally waxed communi- 
cative, and soon the young stranger told his story. He 
proved to be one of the quite numerous class of pitiable 
mortals that nearly everybody has seen something of — a 
man laboring in distress with the elephant of a patent 
on his hands and brain. He had invented it, got it 
patented, and spent all his own means and as much 
more as he could borrow, endeavoring to get it before 
the public and reap the fortune he had dreamed 
would surely flow to him from it. He, too, was going 
back to his home, dejected and crest-fallen, for his 
enterprise had been ill-starred, his exertions and ex- 
penditures had all been in vain, and the dreams that 
had sustained and lured him on so long had now all van- 
ished, and he must carry disappointment to those who 
had helped him. Like all men with patents, he was 
ready and eager to explain its great merits and value and 
talk about it and nothing else as long as any one would 
listen. He explained its nature and utility to his fellow 
miserable, who listened attentively, at first because he 
was quite as eager to forget his own sorrows as the young 
patentee was to expatiate upon his, but very soon because 



A PATENT. 43 

a sudden ray of light beamed upon his vision. Mr. Fisk 
saw at once that the patent was of value and that the 
young man's dreams of the fortune there was in it had 
been far from baseless ; but, strange to say, he did not 
give his new acquaintance the consolation of suspecting 
this new-born conviction. However, he induced the de- 
jected spirit to go on to Boston instead of stopping at 
home, philanthropically encouraging him to hope that 
they might possibly pick up some greenhorn there who 
could be wheedled into giving a little something for it, 
and whatever he could get now would be so much clear 
gain of course, as he was going home to throw it up 
entirely. Arrived at their journey's end, the young man 
gladly disposed of his patent-right for a comparative 
trifle and went home somewhat less heavy hearted. The 
purchaser that had been wheedled into buying it was 
not, however, so much of a greenhorn as might be. Fisk 
nudged the young inventor in the ribs and chuckled with 
him over the sharp manner in which they had duped 
some unwary wight and when he had got him to feeling 
nicely he left him and hurried away to reap the benefit of 
the large interest which he had taken good care to secure 
to himself. The patent was a small improvement of great 
utility and extensive application in machinery used in cot- 
ton and woolen mills, proved to be of immense practical 
and pecuniary value, and brought the new owners a hand- 
some income. 

The downward tide in Mr. Fisk's fortunes was stemmed. 



44 HE MEETS DANIEL DREW. . 

Confidence and courage were replenished, and with the 
possession once more of capital sufficient for quite exten- 
sive operations on a margin, his longing turned to Wall 
Street again. But before starting back he learned that 
some parties in Boston were desirous of buying the Bris- 
tol fine of steamers running on Long Island Sound. It 
occurred to him that he might turn this circumstance to 
some account for himself and this was the pretext of his 
next visit to New York. His first business was to secure 
a letter of introduction to the president of the company 
owning the coveted fine of steamers. This he readily pro- 
cured and presented. The person to whom he was thus 
introduced was the celebrated Daniel Drew. But for this 
meeting the world would probably never have heard of 
James Fisk, Jr. That event constitutes the most promi- 
nent and important landmark in his life and turned his 
career into the course that has conducted him to his pres- 
ent position. The presidency of the Bristol Line Steam- 
boat Company was but one small bob on the Drew kite. 
Already past his three score and ten, he wore the scars of 
many fierce battles, some of which were still fresh and 
scarcely cicatrized. Born a farmer's boy, at Carmel, on th6 
Harlem road, he had been successively a drover, proprie- 
tor of the Bull's Head Tavern (of great fame in the olden 
time), and a large owner in steamship enterprises. In this 
last character he came into contact with "Vanderbilt and the 
two had since been life-long rivals. He had been the 
Commodore's great antagonist in the then recent Harlem 



THE " SPECULATIVE DIRECTOR." 45 

" corners " — the pioneer coups-de-main in Wall Street 
stock jobbing operations, and in these had been badly 
worsted by his veteran foe. He was now the great Mogul 
of Erie — one of its directors, its treasurer, its sole manipu- 
lator, the first to use his position to gamble in the stock of 
his own corporation, already dubbed the " speculative direc- 
tor," and the acknowledged leader of Wall Street's " bear" 
brigade. Drew was much pleased with his new acquaint- 
ance, was quite surprised and fascinated with the grand 
and liberal ideas which the young man very freely ventil- 
ated on the question of steamships and affairs generally, 
and immediately authorized him to act as his agent in 
negotiating the sale of the Bristol steamers. This trust 
was executed in a manner that confirmed and heightened 
the old gentleman's first impressions and gave him entire 
satisfaction at the same time that it put a nice little sum 
into the skillful agent's pocket as his commission for con- 
ducting the transfer. 

Mr. Fisk now looked upon Wall Street as his headquar- 
ters again, but as he had learned that the game there was 
played with stacked cards and loaded dice he sagely con- 
cluded it would be much safer to have a finger in the 
stacking business or be privy to its manner, and make 
himself master of the magic cubes, instead of having them 
played on him again. He is not to be caught twice in the 
same trap. He had seen those " twenty -four jacks " fall 
out of Ah Sin's sleeves in their first hand of euchre and 
he was not going to sit down to the game again till he 



46 DREW'S GREAT CAMPAIGN. 

had a pair of sleeves just like Ah Sin's — only a little 
larger — and they should be well filled with right bowers. 
Drew, in the first flush of his admiration for the young 
man's bearing, spoke the necessary words of encourage- 
ment, and shortly after the sign of a new firm of brokers 
appeared bearing the firm name of Fisk & Belden. They 
made a specialty of dealing in Erie and soon became 
known among the fraternity as Drew's brokers. The 
head of the firm being a special favorite, confidant and 
'protege of the crafty director and treasurer, it is more 
than probable that he was privy to sufficient information 
•and " points " not for general use, to enable him to oper- 
ate on his own account with all desired safety and make 
much more than a simple commission as broker for 
others. It was in the spring of 1866 that Drew exe- 
cuted his first great master-stroke in bear operations, 
inaugurating a system of manipulations wholly original 
and unparalelled, making the entire bull clique writhe 
under his goad, and finally strewing the pavement with 
their skulls and bones, establishing for himself an endur- 
ing fame in the history and traditions of Wall Street. 
Fisk, being fully behind the scenes in this campaign, 
enjoyed the sport immensely and turned his opportunity 
to much substantial account. He was immoderately 
amused at the mad boundings and bellowings of the ram- 
pant animals, shook a red flag before them to incite them 
on and cried " Habet! habet!" in delight as his uncle 
Daniel poured in the final broadside and sent them reefing 



HE LEARNS HOW THE WIRES ARE WORKED. 47 

to the ground. This was an excellent school for the apt 
pupil. He took to its ways with a readiness that showed 
a genius for the science. The briefest period of tuition 
sufficed to make him master of its entire curriculum. All 
the scales having now fallen from his eyes, he resisted 
a longer pupilage and came forward at once as a profes- 
sor. Having caught the principle and spirit of the 
process by which puppets were made to dance on the 
Wall Street stage, he immediately saw that many im- 
provements could be made in the modus operandi of his 
instructor and felt he could play upon the magic keys 
much more deftly than he saw it done by the fingers 
clumsy in size and stiffened by the toils and chills of more 
than three score and ten winters. His subsequent career 
speaks for the close attention he paid during his brief 
term of schooling, and no one can testify better than the 
teacher how thoroughly the lesson was learned both in 
letter and spirit, for the pupil soon repaid the debt of 
gratitude, principal and interest, to his instructor by 
teaching him in turn many tricks at his own trade. But 
the improvements were of a nature requiring a cunning 
of hand which the veteran director could not hope to 
conjure in his weight of years, and it is more than 
doubtful if the instructor feels at all proud of his pupil, 
accurately as he has followed instructions and brilliant as 
his exploits flowing therefrom have been, for the teach- 
ings were returned in a practical way that was not highly 
appreciated, though its force was acknowledged. When 



48 A. MILLIONAIRE. 

the pupil had once seen how the cards were stacked he 
brought to the work such rare manual skill that he stacked 
them under his instructor's very eyes without his seeing 
it and played them upon him before he was aware of it. 
After this had been repeated a few times, the old gentle- 
man rose from the table, offended at this disrespect for 
his years and refused to play any more. He now stands 
a looker on at the table at which he was once master and, 
with hands folded behind him, he gazes with an expres- 
sion of mute curiosity at the grace and dexterity with 
which his pupil shuffles the cards and throws the dice. 

With wind and tide both in his favor, Mr. Fisk very 
soon recovered what he had involuntarily lent to Wall 
Street, and it was but a few months before the man who 
had lost his last dollar again had a bank account of over 
a million. 



OHAPTEE IV. 

" SHOET AND LONG '' "BULLS AND BEARS " " OPTION " 

" COBNEB " " MARGIN " " CAEEYING " GOLD EXCHANGE 

BANK THE GOLD BOOM. 

Wall Street has a dialect peculiar to itself, concise and 
expressive, but utterly unintelligible to the uninitiated. 
Some of the terms are quite familiar to many who yet 
have but a vague idea of their exact meaning. As an ac- 
curate understanding of the terms employed and some of 
the machinery used by brokers will be necessary to an in- 
telligent reading of some of the following chapters, a brief 
elucidation may not be unwelcome to some into whose 
hands these pages may fall. 

Suppose the stock of a certain railroad is selling to- 
day at $90 a share. A, for reasons known to himself, 
thinks the price is going to fall soon. He meets B who 
thinks, on the contrary, that the price is going up. A 
owns none of the stock at present, but he agrees to deliver 
B 100 shares at 90 sometime within 10, 20, 30 or 60 days. 
A has now gone "short" of the stock, L e., he is under 



50 



THE PRINCIPLE OF STOCK SPECULATIONS. 



obligation to deliver at a future day, and for a fixed price, 
stock that he does not now possess; and B has gone 
" long," i. e., he is under obligation to take the stock at a 
future day at a price already agreed upon. The two 
terms are correlative, the one always implying the other, 
it being impossible for one man to go "short" till he 
meets another who will go "long." 

Of course A's design is to wait till the stock has fallen, 
say to 85, then buy a hundred shares at that price, carry 
them to B and make him take them as agreed upon at 
90, and clear $500 by the operation. B's design is to 
wait till the stock has risen, say to 95, then call on A to 
deliver the 100 shares at 90, as agreed upon, sell them at 
95 and clear $500 dollars by the operation. The essence 
of the whole matter is, A bets the stock will fall and B 
bets it will rise, the amount of the bet being left to be de- 
termined by the amount of fluctuation in the stated time. 
And as a matter of fact it often, if not generally, happens 
that none of the stock is ever bought at all, but one simply 
pays to the other the difference in price at the two dates. 
Thus if the stock falls, A does not buy 100 shares, pay 
$8,500 therefor, take them to B and get $9,000 for them, 
but B simply pays A $500, the sum he would make by the 
operation — what has turned out to be the amount of the 
bet. As A entered into the contract only on speculation 
and not because he wanted to keep the stock as an invest- 
ment, he would only have to sell it again at the lower rate, 
and all this useless trouble of two actual purchases, trans- 



BULLS AND BEAKS. 



51 



fers and deliveries is avoided and the same result attained 
by simply paying A the amount he would make. 

When such an agreement has been entered into, of 
course it is for A's interest that there should be a fall in 
the stock of which he is short, for the greater the fall the 
greater will be his profit, and therefore he now exerts 
himself to make it fall. He represents the stock as a bad 
one to invest in ; hints that there is going to be an oppo- 
sition road built, so the stock will soon pay smaller divi- 
dends or no dividends, and greatly decrease in value ; that 
the road is being badly managed, its officers are dishonest, 
using it for their own personal ends, and there is danger 
of its becoming bankrupt ; or that there has been an issue 
of new stock, etc., etc. Those who hear and believe these 
rumors naturally become afraid of the stock, are anxious 
to sell it if they own any, and unwilling to buy. It thus 
becomes plenty in the market, is depressed and falls. 
A in such a case is said to "bear" the stock or be a 
"bear." It being for B's interest that the stock should 
rise, he sets to work circulating rumors of just the oppo- 
site nature and influence, endeavoring to make the stock 
attractive and in great demand. He is then said to 
"bull" the market or be a "bull." Therefore a man 
who has gone "short" is naturally by interest a "bear" 
and a man who has gone " long" is naturally by interest 
a "bull." 

When A and B have made an agreement as supposed 
it often makes a great difference which one of them has 



52 



the right of demanding its fulfilment any day within the 
limit. For if A agrees to deliver the stock within 30 
days and it should fall rapidly in the first five days and 
get as low as he thinks it will go, he will buy at this low 
price and, if he has the right of choosing the day for car- 
rying out the agreement, he will force B to take it the day 
on which it is lowest; whereas, if B has the right of 
choosing the day, he will wait in the hope that the stock 
will rise again during the remaining 25 days and will 
call on A to deliver on the day when it is selling highest. 
The transaction must be closed on the last day of the 
limit. This right of choosing the day is called the 
" option." It is always settled at the time of making the 
agreement who has the "option" and it often makes a 
great difference in the price whether the buyer gives or 
takes it Of course A can buy when the stock is low, 
though the option is against him, and hold the stock till 
B calls for it. In such a case he is said to " cover his 
shorts." 

As a man who sells short has none of the stock at the 
time of contracting for its future delivery, it is easily 
possible that contracts may be entered into for the deliv- 
ery of a greater number of shares than can possibly be 
had, or even than there are in existence. A shrewd 
operator may easily find a hundred men each of whom 
will go short a thousand shares ; he makes a contract 
with each without any of the others suspecting it and he 
will thus have contracts out for the delivery to him of 



5,3 



100,000 shares of the stock within 30 days when, it may 
be, there are but 50,000 shares in existence. He now 
buys up the stock as quietly as possible at the present low 
price and before any of the shorts are covered or any one 
suspects what is going on, he may have the whole 50,000 
shares locked up in his own safe. Men suddenly find 
that not a single share of the stock is to be had in the 
market at any price and yet contracts are out for the 
delivery of 100,000 shares. The operator now has the 
shorts in what is called a " corner." They must satisfy 
their contracts or fail. Stock cannot be had to fulfill the 
agreements, therefore they must make the best terms 
they can to be let off from their contracts. They are 
wholly in the operator's power and his demands will be 
limited only by what he deems the utmost each can pay 
without failing. 

The capital required in manipulating such a plot being 
very large, there are but few single individuals of sufficient 
means to manage a "corner" operation alone, but combi- 
nations of several men are often formed for the purpose, 
each contributing his means to a general fund to be used 
in the operation and sharing a proportionate part of the 
proceeds. Such a combination is called a "pool." 

When a man directs a broker to buy stock for him he 
does not supply the broker with money to the full value 
of the stock, but only a certain per cent, thereon — 5, 10 or 
20 per cent., as the case may be — so much as is deemed 
sufficient to cover any probable fall in the price. The per 



54 



cent, thus deposited with the broker is called a " margin," 
it being the range or margin over which the price may 
fluctuate without risk to the broker. The rest of the money 
or credit needed is furnished by the broker, who charges 
interest thereon, keeps the stock in his own hands as se- 
curity and is said to " carry " it for his customer. By this 
means a man with only five or ten thousand dollars can 
operate with a capital of a hundred thousand, and a man 
with a hundred thousand dollars can operate with a capi- 
tal of two millions. Herein lies the great temptation to 
indulge in such speculations and the whole secret of the 
great power which a few men, or even a single man, can 
exert in such matters. 

An active broker often buys or sells the same stock 
or gold several times the same dav. One customer directs 
him to buy and he buys ; another directs him to sell and 
he sells. If a stock rises rapidly the customer who buys 
early in the morning may sell again in an hour or less ; 
if it falls rapidly the man who sells in the morning may 
buy again in a few minutes. Fluctuations in the price 
are often so rapid that a man may buy and sell the same 
hundred shares of stock or the same lot of gold half a 
dozen times in as many hours, making a handsome profit 
at every turn. This would make a great deal of work 
and require many clerks in a broker's office if there was 
an actual transfer of the stock and gold in every tran- 
saction. To simplify and facilitate this work, an institu- 
tion to which all brokers belong has been established to 



DEALING BY BALANCES. 



55 



manage this part of the business and superintend all the 
actual transfers of property. As soon as a broker buys, 
he sends a notice of the transaction to this institu- 
tion. Five minutes after, he sells either the same or 
another stock or lot of gold and immediately sends the 
institution a notice of this transaction. And so on 
through the whole day till a quarter past two o'clock, 
when transactions through the institution close for the 
day. A statement of all the purchases and sales of the 
day is now made out and balanced and handed in to the 
institution. If the amount of the purchases exceeds the 
amount of the sales, the broker pays the institution the 
difference ; if the sales exceed the purchases in amount, 
the institution pays the broker the difference ; if the two 
are just equal, all his transactions for the day, amount- 
ing, it may be, to many millions, are completed by simply 
balancing the two sides of the account and without one 
cent having been used by him in the operation. By this 
means the same stock or gold may be sold a hundred 
times during the day and yet there will be only one 
actual transfer of it. A starts the transactions, selling 
to B ; B sells to C, to D, and so on through the whole 
alphabet till the close of the day ; then A, the first seller, 
hands it into the institution and Z, the last purchaser, 
draws it out. All the others have both bought and sold 
it, therefore it is only necessary for them to balance their 
accounts and settle the difference. 

This arrangement, which renders neccessary capital 



56 



THE GOLD EXCHANGE BANK. 



equal only to the difference in the two sides of all the 
accounts for the day, supplements the " margin " and is to 
the broker what the "margin" is to the operator. The 
two form a system of compound leverage by which a hun- 
dred dollars is made to move a million, or any amount, the 
principle being the same as that which justified the boast 
of Archimedes that he would move the world if any one 
would give him a place to stand on. It was by this 
system of paying only the balance of their accounts that 
it was possible for the dealings of the gold brokers to 
amount to five hundred millions of dollars on Black 
Friday when there was not in reality twenty millions of 
gold among all the brokers in New York. 

The stock and gold brokers have separate clearing 
houses or institutions for effecting their clearances, i. e., 
superintending the transfer and settlement of the bal- 
ances. That of the stock brokers is called the New York 
Stock Exchange, and that of the gold brokers the Gold 
Exchange Bank. 

It is important to note that the dealings of the brokers 
are so interlaced, as they appear at the clearances, that if 
any one firm fails to hand in a statement of its trans- 
actions the whole machinery may be clogged up and the 
clearing house unable to proceed with its work. The 
following is an actual statement of the transactions of the 
firm of Smith, Gould (Jay Gould) & Martin on Black 
Friday : 



THE GOLD EXCHANGE BANK. 



57 



Received from- 




Delivered to — 


Wra. Heath & Co. $6,210,000 


Lock-wood & Co. . $10,000 


White, Morris & Co. . 


400,000 


Stout Thayer . 20,000 


Dakin Gillespie 


984,000 


Dzondi, Springer & Co. 50,000 


E. K. Willard 


5,845,000 


Carver & Co. . 430,000 


Hodgskin, Randall & Co 


50.000 


Gibson & Beadleston . 75,000 


Budge, Schiff & Co. . 


800,000 


B. K. Steveus, Jr., . 25,000 


Cushman & Hurlburt . 


50,000 


Lounsberry & Fanshaw 1,700,000 


S. R. Jacobs 


100,000 


Fanshaw & Milliken . 300,000 


Lange, Bolle & Anning 


50,000 


Hallgarten & Co. . 35,000 


Dean, Maginnis & Co. 


95,000 


Kamlah, Sauer & Co. 134,000 


M. Morgan's Sons 


20,000 


Parker, Bros. & Geston 15,000 


Foster & Randall 


20,000 


Fellows & Co. . 15,000 


J. W. Seligman & Co. 


225,000 


Cunningham & Mead. 85,000 


Hallgarten & Co 


200,000 


Maxwell & Graves . 30,000 


Domett & Nichols 


10,000 


Norton, Haughtou & Co. 50,000 


B. Hall & Young 


500,000 


Tan sing, Fisher & Co. 90.000 


G. H. & H. Redmond 


875,000 


N. R. Travers . 50,000 


W. C. Mumford 


50,000 


Grey, Prince & Co. . 1,245,000 


Meyer & Creve 


200,000 


Chapin, Bowen & Day 2,915,000 


Kennedy & Hutchinson 


100,000 


Wm. Heath & Co. . 200,000 


Robinson, Cox & Co . 


30,000 


Cushman & Hurlburt. 25,000 


Lees & Waller 
Reed, Leo & Content . 


200,000 
1,015,000 




$7,499,000 


Hagen & Billing 


200,000 


Coin due dealer 13,151,000 


E. H. Biedermean 
G. P. Persch 


445,000 
735,000 




$20,650,000 


Robert Waller 


655,000 




Stout Thayer 


90,000 




$20,650,000 





Here were fifty-one different transactions by one firm in 
a single day, amounting to $28,149,000 and they were all 
adjusted, so far as this firm was concerned, by the single 
act of drawing from the bank $13,151,000 in gold and 
handing in a check for the currency value thereof. Now 



58 THE GOLD ROOM. 

if (as actually happened) this firm failed to hand in this 
statement the clearing house would be unable to adjust 
the accounts of any one of the nearly fifty firms appearing 
therein, and as each of these firms would have trans- 
actions with many others, the whole machinery of settling 
must come to a standstill till the statement of every one 
is in. 

For its services in effecting these clearances the Gold 
Exchange Bank receives ten cents for every $10,000 
cleared. This may seem a ridiculously small commission 
at first, but when it appears that the average annual 
amount of clearances has been about $20,000,000,000 
and that even at this small commission the bank has 
received in the neighborhood of $200,000 annually for 
its services, the remuneration does not seem quite so 
ridiculously small. 

The Gold Room is the place where the gold brokers 
meet at certain hours of the day to buy and sell, the 
price then paid being officially recorded and forming the 
" quotations " for the day. It is a dingy, dismal room of 
moderate size, entered from New Street by narrow, 
untidy wooden stairs and quite disappoints the expecta- 
tions naturally formed from the fame of its doings. On 
one side is a large clock over which is the indicator 
showing, in large figures moved by telegraphic wires, the 
price at which gold is selling. On the opposite side is a 
gallery for spectators and such as have not the counter- 
sign that secures admission within the exclusive circle. 



THE GOLD EOOM. 59 

The body of the floor is an amphitheatre, i. e., in the 
form of a circle and descending gradually by steps from 
the outside towards the centre. A circle in the centre, 
about eight feet in diameter, is surrounded by a strong 
iron railing enclosing a fountain. The design of this 
ornament is quite unique, being a bronze statuette stand- 
ing upon huge oyster shells and hugging a dolphin to its 
breast; a jet of water constantly spouts from the dol- 
phin's mouth, falls back upon the bronze and babbles 
down into the reservoir at the base — the whole consti- 
tuting a forcible and fitting satire upon the life and 
doings of the men who daily crowd around it and deport 
themselves in a manner vividly suggestive of Babel, 
Bedlam and pandemonium united. 

It was this small circular pit that constituted the most 
sensitive pulse of the nation during the trying days of the 
rebellion. It was here that the news of Bull Run and the 
Chickahominy, Gettysburg and the Wilderness, was most 
quickly felt. At this point was dropped the pebbles that 
started the magic waves which broke only on the limits 
of the nation. It was the yells of the men surging within 
this circle, shouting and gesticulating like maniacs, that 
determined the figures so eagerly scanned from each 
morning's news as it reached the remotest hamlet. Here 
still these men keep up a fitful losing battle to prolong 
their calling, though the circumstances that gave it being 
and some small elements of usefulness have long since 
passed away. 



CHAPTER V. 

AN ERIE DIRECTOR HOW THE SLATE WAS MADE UP FISK AND 

GOULD MEET A POOL SOLD OUT VANDERBILT ROUSED 

A BATCH OF BARNARD'S INJUNCTIONS COUNTERBLAST FROM 

BROOKLYN TEN MILLIONS OF NEW STOCK SECRETLY ISSUED 

— VANDERBILT TRAPPED AND DREW BITTEN FLEEING THE 

STATE. 

Mr. Fisk first became officially connected with the Erie 
Railway on the 8th of October, 1867, being chosen a 
director at the annual election held on that day. The 
campaign for this election opened with three parties in 
the field. The officers in control of the road, headed by 
Drew, sought reelection. With this party Mr. Fisk was 
identified. Next came Vanderbilt, who, having made 
himself absolute and undisputed master of the Harlem, 
Hudson River & N. Y. Central roads, now sought to 
grasp control of Erie in like manner, that he might have 
despotic sway over all the roads connecting New York 
with the great lakes and make himself practical dictator 
of the material interests of the commercial metropolis. 
The third party was headed by John S. Eldridge and 



MAKING UP THE SLATE. 61 

composed of men largely interested in the Boston, 
Hartford & Erie road — a line running from Boston 
through Connecticut and New York to Eishkill, where it 
meets a branch of Erie. This corporation was in a 
desperate struggle for existence and was in bad financial 
odor. The Massachusetts Legislature had voted to assist 
the company to the sum of $3,000,000 provided it would 
raise an additional sum of $4,000,000 elsewhere. The 
laudable purpose of this third party was to gain a con- 
trolling voice in the Erie councils in order to get this 
corporation to assist them to the much-desired 
$4,000,000. Under the Eldridge banner Jay Gould was 
training. 

At these elections each share of stock entitles the 
holder to one vote, consequently a party must control a 
majority of the stock in order to carry the election. With 
three parties competing for possession, there was a fine 
prospect of a rapid and extraordinary rise in the stock, 
promising a lively time and a rich harvest for the brokers, 
operators, and owners of Erie. But before the contending 
chiefs had marshalled their forces and mounted their 
heavy guns for this great triangular battle, the Eldridge 
party resorted to diplomacy and secured a coalition with 
Vanderbilt. These two factions agreed to unite their 
forces in ousting Drew and electing a board of directors 
that would manage the road so as to secure both their 
interests. They knew that their united power made their 
victory certain in a square fight ; but they also knew very 



62 MAKING UP THE SLATE. 

well that it would not be a square fight if Drew was left 
with his peculiar fertility of resource untrammelled. 
They remembered the ingenious device by which he had 
supplied himself with 58,000 shares of Erie stock to meet 
an emergency the year before and they knew the same 
convenient machinery would be made to do service again 
and grind at any desired number of shares at the proper 
crisis and thus, after relieving them of several millions of 
their money, rob them of victory at the last moment. To 
guard against this favorite species of Drew tactics they 
resolved to invoke the majesty of the law. The necessary 
preliminary affidavits and papers were made out prepara- 
tory to obtaining an injunction that should effectively 
prevent Drew from using at the election or in the market 
a single share of stock beyond the already authorized 
capital stock of the company. 

In this position stood matters the Sunday before the 
election. On that day Drew, as if troubled with premo- 
nitions of approaching discomfiture, called npon Vander- 
bilt at his residence. The Commodore kindly entertained 
his caller by relating to him the arrangements made to 
compass his overthrow and complacently read for his 
edification the legal documents that were to be used for 
his special behoof the next morning. Drew seeing at 
once that the elements were getting too strong for him 
and that he was doomed to take an unwilling leave of the 
helm whereat he had stood for ten years and retire to the 
quiet life of his native Carmel unless he could effect some 



MAKING UP THE SLATE. 63 

compromise, and being ever ready to do anything to save 
and serve himself, immediately proposed to change front 
entirely, abandon his chronic antagonism and bear oper- 
ations, unite in a movement for running Erie up as 
Harlem, Hudson River and Central had been run up 
before, become the sworn ally of his life-long rival and 
serve him in all his schemes, on the sole condition of 
being permitted to retain his position as director and 
treasurer of Erie. The Commodore was entirely dis- 
armed by this unexpected tender of the olive branch. 
He saw this would relieve many millions of dollars that 
else must be used in getting and keeping control of Erie 
and he knew that no other ally could serve him so well. 
Besides, there may have been a touch of the poetic in 
feeling reconciled to a foe after long years of warfare and 
mutual scars, and a natural affinity and preference for 
an ally as venerable as himself in years. At any rate, 
without the slightest regard for the agreement made with 
the Eldridge party, he accepted the proposition at once, 
and these two inveterate enemies, on the eve of another 
fierce conflict, struck hands over the altar of friendship, 
buried the past and coalesced to serve each other, 
unmindful of pledges recently made, reckless of the 
interests of great corporations entrusted to their care, 
indifferent to the rights of the (to them) somewhat vague 
and mythical entity, the public. Beautiful is it to wit- 
ness in declining years such reconciliations of the feuds of 
a long life ! But the Eldridge party were so singularly 



64 MAKING DP THE SLATE. 

lacking in appreciation and love for the poetic that they 
were actually displeased and disposed to be indignant at 
being thus slighted and shook their heads at the affecting 
tableau much as the evil one is said to do at the sight of 
holy water. They called upon Vanderbilt soon after 
Drew had taken his leave, and when he informed them 
that he had changed his plan and decided upon a course 
looking to the continuance in power of the very man 
whose removal had formed the keystone of their union, 
they were utterly astounded, shouted for the agreement 
as Shylock for his bond, and signified their intention of 
taking a very bellicose attitude in case of any bad faith 
with them. Their suave host mildly proposed an ad- 
journment of the interview to the residence of Mr. Drew. 
This was agreed upon, and a few hours later in the 
evening these devout spirits met for their third Sabbath- 
day services. The Eldridge faction still wearing a very 
bellicose and uncompromising visage, Vanderbilt coolly 
proceeded in their very presence to talk with Drew upon 
the course to be pursued to secure the utter defeat of the 
presuming youths and shut them out of all power and 
influence in the control of the road. The Bostonians 
well knew that these two powerful veterans working 
together could have things entirely their own way with- 
out the slightest difficulty, and finding that they were 
only derisively laughed at when they suggested that 
agreements and promises were of any binding force in 
such matters, and that they must make a new tack or be 




D^JNTIEL DREW, 



MAKING UP THE SLATE. 65 

swamped, they speedily dismounted from their high 
horse, adopted that discretion which is the better part of 
valor, resorted to diplomacy once more, and manoeuvred 
for a fusion and harmonizing of all opposing interests 
and purposes. The council was prolonged far into the 
night and finally resulted in a proclamation of universal 
amnesty and impartial suffrage to a degree of perfection 
that should satisfy even Horace Greeley. When the meet- 
ing broke up and the parties emerged from the mansion 
of the " speculative director " in the gray dawn of the 
morning, all was peace. The rumble of cannon, yester- 
day moving into position for a fierce triangular battle, had 
died away in the harmony of a magnanimous tripartite 
alliance. Once in a compromising mood, it had been 
found quite feasible to arrange for a mutual grinding of 
all their little axes and let Wall Street, the public and the 
Erie Railway bleed for all three parties instead of one. 
Drew was to be continued in his position and Eldridge 
was to go into the direction and become its president ; 
the road was to be run in league and fraternity with the 
Vanderbilt roads and in accordance with his wishes, and 
give him the monopoly he desired over New York ; the 
corporation was to provide the Boston, Hartford & Erie 
Company (of which Mr. Eldridge was also president) 
with the much desired $4,000,000 ; there was to be a 
grand combination to run up the price of Erie stock ; and 
Drew was to be the great factotum of all these little 
matters, which would enable him to add to his millions 



66 MAKING UP THE STATE. 

by judicious use of the power and private information 
incident to the position. 

This arrangement was eminently satisfactory to all 
three of the parties, as well it might be, but the Eldridge 
men foresaw that its execution involved one unpleasant cir- 
cumstance for them. Opposition to Drew had been their 
chief stock in trade from the start. They had professed 
themselves greatly scandalized at his conduct in abusing 
his trust to further his private schemes and speculate in 
the stock in contempt of law and directly against the in- 
terests of the stockholders. " Down with the speculative 
director!" was the motto they had inscribed on their ban- 
ner to win favor, and upon this purpose they had based 
their special claim to consideration and support. They 
had not yet acquired the lofty contempt of their veteran 
confederates for the opinion and esteem of both public and 
friends provided they carried their point, and therefore 
naturally felt a little squeamish at the thought of appear- 
ing before their friends with such a sudden abandonment 
of the cause they had so loudly championed, their indig- 
nation and offended moral sense so inexplicably collapsed, 
and advocating the reelection of the man whom they had 
so unsparingly denounced as unfit to be continued in 
power. They dreaded the reproach of bad faith and 
treachery which they felt would be deservedly charged 
upon them by their friends and followers. Out of regard 
to this mawkish sensibility it was arranged that a ticket 
with Drew's name left off should be made up and elected, 



A FLUTTER 1ST WALL STKEET. 67 

but one of the men on the ticket should be an obliging 
man of straw who would kindly resign immediately after 
election, and then the remaining directors, in virtue of the 
power given them to fill any vacancy in their board, 
would choose Drew to fill the place resigned by the locum 
tenens. This would save appearances for the sensitive 
spirits and raise a dust that would conceal their "job" 
from the eyes of their friends till it was forgotten. By a 
most fortunate chance, too, this piece of strategy would 
have an incidental consequence not to be despised or neg- 
lected. These contradictory actions would produce vio- 
lent fluctuations in the stock on election day, which those 
behind the scenes would know how to turn to good ac- 
count. With all matters thus nicely cut and dried, the 
protracted meeting in the house of the distinguished 
Methodist broke up and this Gideon's Band came forth 
from the mansion of peace with serene countenances. 

The first act in the programme thus settled upon was 
faithfully carried out. The election came off and the news 
reaching Wall Street that the great leader of the bears had 
been defeated and driven out of his fort, spread a panic 
among his followers and Erie bounded upward. Two 
hours later came the news that Mr. Underwood had re- 
signed his place as director and that Drew had been 
chosen to fill the vacancy and was reinstated in his old 
place. This acted like magic on the bear brigade, which 
instantly became ascendant again, and Erie fell as quickly 
as it had risen. There was a difference of 3i per cent, in 



68 FISK AND GOULD MEET. 

the extreme prices of the day, a fluctuation sufficiently 
large to yield a rich profit to those who knew beforehand 
how the wires were to be operated and thus were enabled 
to reap two harvests in a single day. 

The strange course of things on election day puzzled 
and confused operators and brokers utterly but the 
mysterious movement was soon forgotten in the sweeping 
tide of Wall Street and Erie settled down for a calm of a 
few weeks, remaining quite steady at about 70. 

Among the new directors chosen at this election were 
Jay Gkmld and James Fisk, Jr., who met for the first 
time at the preliminary meeting of the new board. Mr. 
Fisk says the date of this election is well fixed in his 
memory, because it constitutes an " episode " in his life. 
He dates his grey hairs from that day, and says he saw 
more robbery during the next year than he had ever seen 
before in his whole life — a statement that will receive 
ready credence. But it is amusing to note that this date 
which is so indelibly marked in his memory he testified to 
be the 13th of October when it was in reality the 8th. 
He has also said he had not been in office fifteen minutes 
before he made up his mind there was going to be 
trouble. 

The first act of the programme had been successfully 
performed and it was now time for the next. In 
pursuance of the agreement to run the stock up, a large 
" pool " was formed the last of November or early part of 
December and Drew was left in charge of the fund to 



A POOL SOLD. 69 

engineer the movement. Besides their contributions to 
the pool many of the confederates made large purchases 
on their own private accounts, looking to a rapid rise. 
The prices did not make rapid leaps upward at once but 
fluctuated two or three per cent. " forward and back " 
rather mysteriously for four or five weeks. The members 
of the pool who had made outside investments being 
surprised that the stock fell back heavily after each ad- 
vance instead of rising uniformly and rapidly as antici- 
pated, applied to Drew for information and advice ; but 
he, in his childlike innocence and simplicity, seemed more 
confused and puzzled than any of the rest and utterly at a 
loss to account for the strange manner in which their 
stock acted, yet felt sure it would soon move regularly 
under their purchases. With this assurance from their 
sagacious chief they made still further private purchases, 
some of them even borrowing some of the pool money 
from Drew to put up as a margin and in addition went 
"long" extensively. They were confident the looked-for 
bound upward must come soon, began to]count the hours 
ere their fortunes would be reckoned in millions, and 
were already forming many little plans and dreams to be 
executed when they came in possession. They continued 
their purchases while the stock rose four, five or six per 
cent, and then, to their utter amazement, it dropped 
heavily back to the starting point and was 'plenty to all 
purchases. They now became alarmed, for their " long " 
contracts were near maturity and but a few days 



70 MB. DREW HAS NO " PINTS." 

remained in which to reap the golden harvest they had 
deemed as good as secured. 

The day on which this decline occurred was one of those 
days at the close of which operators and brokers are too 
excited and anxious to go home. In the evening, the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel presented the appearance of an 
adjourned meeting of the Stock Exchange, the main halls, 
corridors and public rooms being thronged with the hab- 
itues of Wall Street, all excited and utterly confounded over 
the course of Erie that day. Standing by the grand stair- 
case was an old gentleman with a peculiarly wrinkled face 
and brow, with an expression of the most artless simplicity 
upon his countenance as he surveyed the scene around 
him and watched the writhings of the bulls with mute 
curiosity, utterly unable to comprehend the meaning of 
the situation. A prominent broker approached him and 
said, — " Well, Mr. Drew, is Erie going to fall '? " " Other 
folks think so, but I can't give you no 'pints' in it," 
was the reply of the old gentleman of childlike innocence 
and he continued his disinterested survey of the scene. 

Renewed applications of the members of the pool to 
Mr. Drew for light on the subject were like efforts to get 
blood out of a turnip, so blissfully ignorant was he and so 
sphinx-like were his responses. They then commenced 
making investigations through their brokers, endeavoring 
to trace the stock furnished them to the source of supply. 
Their efforts had not been exerted long in this direction 
when they were suddenly stricken with horror — the most 



A GORGON HORROR. 71 

sickening of gorgon horrors. Their blood was chilled, 
cold perspiration gathered on their brows and a tremor 
ran through their very bones. Nearly every share of 
stock they had bought had been supplied by Drew him- 
self! through his various brokers. The truth dawned 
upon them. They had been betrayed and sold out by 
their own leader, and must lose thousands where they had 
counted upon making hundreds of thousands. Who could 
have dreamt of such duplicity and treachery ? Who could 
have believed that the man who was wholly indebted to 
the pool for a recent new lease of power, who had been 
able to make terms only by promising to join efforts with 
the pool and work for its aim, who had been entrusted by 
the pool with the pool fund to manage their "bull" 
movement, who had been confided in by members of the 
pool for advice, and who had kindly loaned them some of 
the pool money to operate with privately — who could have 
believed that this man would deceive and dupe them ? 
victimize them so treacherously while acting as their 
trusted ally and chief ? That was what Daniel Drew had 
done. He had played the bear and duped his most inti- 
mate associates so long that the disease was chronic, a 
" second nature " with him, and the weak nerves of the 
poor old man could no more resist the temptation of such 
an unprecedented opportunity for duping a fine lot of con- 
federates, playing such a comical trick upon the trust 
reposed in him and acting his normal character of bear 
despite all pledges and obligations, than water can help 



72 VANDERBILT ROUSED. 

running down hill or sparks can resist flying upward. 
When Erie was low he laid in a large stock. When it rose 
he kindly furnished his friends with money to buy with 
and then, one good turn deserving another, he had kindly 
supplied stock for them to buy. He loaded the market 
till the price fell and then he bought again, sending the 
market up, when once more his friends borrowed money 
of him to buy his own stock. And thus while Erie had 
acted in a manner that puzzled and surprised not only the 
general dealers but even those who thought they knew all 
about it, the wily old man had been manipulating these 
moderate turns, duping his friends and making large 
profits for the pool in general and himself in particular. 

As soon as these facts became known, a meeting of the 
pool was held at which the comical Drew coolly and 
and soothingly announced that the pool had made a hand- 
some sum and proceeded to divide the spoil. The grim 
humor of this situation has but few parallels and will be 
fully appreciated by all the world now, though the hu- 
morous side of it was not at the time at all apparent to 
the members of the pool, except, perhaps, Fisk and Gould. 
These gentlemen have a very lively sense of the humorous, 
and as they were too sharp to get caught, and probably 
even profited by the proceeding, it is more than likely that 
they appreciated the position in all its phases. 

The wrath of Vanderbilt knew no bounds and was 
something inspiring to behold, like the fury of a mighty 
storm. It was not that he had been duped. It was not 



A NEW POOL. 73 

at Drew's ingratitude and duplicity. It was not that his 
friends had been victimised, pledges broken and his aims 
momentarily thwarted. It was at himself for allowing it 
to be possible to be caught at all, for putting himself in 
the power of any man, for falling so unsuspectingly and 
unguardedly into the trap of his inveterate foe. His 
motto is, " Never put it in any man's power to ruin you." 
He was not ruined nor seriously harmed, but he had 
infringed the rule of his life and been caught napping for 
once by his enemy under the most irritating circum- 
stances. Drew chuckled, looked innocent as a babe and 
felt many an old score wiped out. Fisk and Grould 
chuckled, thought it a huge joke and carefully treasured 
the moral thereof. 

Yanderbilt was now determined that Erie should come 
under his power, — absolutely and beyond the will of any 
man or body of men to say him nay. He first submitted 
to the directors certain propositions expressing his desire 
as to the management of the road, and the rejection of 
these by the board showing him that he was not supreme 
ruler but had been duped all round, he drew himself up 
in all the majesty of his mighty power and resolved to 
make Erie his by main force, as he had done with the 
others. A new pool was immediately formed to do what 
the first one had failed to do. For reasons not necessary 
to mention, Daniel Drew was not a member of this pool. 
Jay Gould, however, was. All these scenes changed 
rapidly, noiselessly, and by unseen forces, and Erie had 



74 LAUGHING AT STATUTES. 

scarcely fallen back under Drew's last unloading upon 
his friends when it wheeled and shot up from 70 to 80 
under the inspiration of the new combination and Van- 
derbilt's roused will so suddenly as to puzzle and con- 
found brokers more than ever by the queer, unexpected 
and inexplicable movement. Drew, now left out in the 
cold, was sad visaged, the picture of childlike innocence 
and simplicity, and despondent, as usual, but — also as 
usual — he boldly sold short of Erie despite the upward 
bound, despite the combination which he knew had been 
formed against him, despite the bitter experience he had 
had in going short when Vanderbilt was opposed to him. 
His course seemed strange, reckless and rushing upon 
self-destruction, as viewed by the multitude, but the wary 
Commodore was quick to read its significance and act 
accordingly. 

The law of the State forbade any increase of the capital 
stock of any railroad by a direct issue of new shares. 

But 

"Danger deviseth shifts : wit waits on fear," 

and Drew's genius had devised a ready and easy way of 
getting round this little difficulty. The charter of the 
company does authorize the directors to issue bonds of 
the corporation for various purposes in the management 
of the road, and these bonds may be made convertible 
into capital stock at the option of the holder. The 
directors were only too glad to issue bonds in any amount 
whenever they could find any one to take them, and 



THE MYSTERIOUS LITTLE MILL. 75 

these being immediately converted into shares of capital 
stock at the demand of the purchaser, Mr. Drew grace- 
fully raised his hat at the cobweb restraint of statutes and 
proceeded on his course. The principle is quite simple. 
A step thirty-six inches long being forbidden, the space 
is divided into two steps of eighteen inches each and 
trippingly passed. 

It was by this simple machinery, then used for the first 
time, that Mr. Drew provided himself with some 58,000 
shares of new Erie stock in the spring of 1866. In that 
instance, however, it was placed with him only as collat- 
eral security for a loan to the corporation, the directors 
not suspecting it was to be put upon the market. He 
nevertheless made use of it in his famous bear campaign 
of that spring and had thereby laid himself liable to legal 
proceedings and heavy damages. He had been left un- 
disturbed, however, and after having sent the stock down 
from 95 to 50 under the staggering load of new shares, 
he bought his collateral back again at the lower figure 
and held it in reserve for any new emergency. 

By a recent statute it was also permitted to a railroad 
to issue its own bonds in place of those of any road under 
lease to it. Availing themselves of the door thus con- 
veniently opened, Drew and some of his fellow directors 
had purchased the Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Rail- 
road. It was a worthless road and was bought for 
$250,000. Immediately after purchasing it they issued 
bonds in its name to the amount of $2,000,000, then 



76 A MALICIOUS DESIGN. 

leased it, thus burdened, to Erie — i. e., in their private 
capacity they leased it to themselves as directors of Erie — 
on such favorable terms that they, as individuals, made an 
annual profit of $140,000 by the transaction. Erie bonds 
were then issued in place of those of the leased road and 
immediately converted into stock. 

With his 58,000 shares of " collateral " ready to be 
launched upon the market any instant ; with the shares 
into which the $2,000,000 of bonds of the leased road had 
been converted, ready for use whenever the market was high 
enough ; and with the simple machinery of the two unlim- 
ited sources of supply easily put in motion at any moment 
to turn out any desired amount of stock, well might Mr. 
Drew recklessly go short in Erie when it stood somewhere 
above 70, and continue to look despondent, " with a smile 
that was child-like and bland." However rash and suicidal 
his course might seem to Wall Street, he innocently felt 
confident that he could oblige the greedy Commodore with 
as much Erie as he would take. 

Vanderbilt understood perfectly well this blind confi- 
dence that went short so boldly, unterrified either by his 
combination, his wrath, or his vast power, and he was not 
such a chicken as to put his foot in the trap of his enemies 
again. He bethought himself of maliciously breaking 
some of the small wheels in Mr. Drew's little machines, 
clogging them up, throwing them out of gear so they 
would not work, and absolutely spoiling the poor old 
man's pet plaything so fondly constructed to amuse him- 



TEN MILLIONS OF NEW STOCK. 77 

self with in trie dull hours. He therefore ordered a halt 
in the operations of the pool and his brokers till he could 
cripple the process by which Erie stock might be dumped 
upon him by the cart-load when he had lifted it to a 
tempting figure. 

It was past the middle of January, 1868, when 
Drew's treachery leaked out and the pool and Yanderbilt 
had found themselves sold. Three weeks had passed in 
the rearrangement of wires, laying new pipes and forming 
the new battle lines. They had been three weeks of that 
dark portentous calm that heralds the coming of a mighty 
storm. On the 17th of February Vanderbilt fired the 
opening gun. It was an injunction from Judge George 
Gr. Barnard, tieing up the 58,000 shares of stock held by 
Drew as collateral so effectually that they could not be put 
upon the market. Two days later came a second order 
from the same judge suspending Drew from the office of 
treasurer and director and ordering him to appear on 
the 10th of March and show cause why he should not 
be permanently removed from the direction of the Erie 
Eailway. Drew was the leading spirit and great arch- 
enemy and it was felt that with him out of the way and 
his hands effectually tied, all would be well. The 58,000 
shares which he held having been tied up by the injunc- 
tion of the 17th, he induced the board of directors to pass 
a resolution to issue $10,000,000 of new bonds to supply 
various needs of the road. These were of course con- 
verted into shares at once, and so for the 58,000 shares 



78 LAW HAS NO TERROR FOR THE INNOCENT. 

which Vanderbilt had tied up 100,000 new shares had 
been manufactured. This brilliant stroke was achieved 
on the 19th, before Judge Barnard's order of that date, 
suspending Drew from office, had been served, and was 
of course kept a dead secret to all but the directors con- 
cerned, no suspicion of it reaching Wall Street or 
Vanderbilt. Therefore when the second injunction 
arrived, it was received with a smile more childlike and 
bland than ever and did not disturb the old gent's nerves 
in the least. He chuckled and said, " Fire away, with 
your injunctions, Mr. Barnard ! Fire away ! An in- 
nocent man like me has nothing to fear from the law." 
Fisk and Gould exchanged winks, chuckled and whispered 
to each other " What jolly sport to see these old bucks 
butt heads ! " 

Of the new shares thus issued, Drew took 50,000 and 
James Fisk, Jr., 50,000. Drew immediately divided his 
into small lots, placed them where they could be used at 
a moment's notice and waited developments. When the 
two injunctions had been served, Vanderbilt regarded the 
hands of Drew tied beyond the power of doing further 
harm and therefore gave orders for the pool and his 
brokers to move forward in the purchase of Erie. The 
order was obeyed with alacrity and the great railroad king 
was fast gaining possession of the coveted power. The 
stock was very active, the chief feature of the street and 
the price tended upward. Drew thought it time to pour 
in his first broadside, send the price down and cover bis 



BARNARD FULMINATES. 



79 



shorts. February 29th Erie was selling in the morning 
at 68-f and the demand for it was strong. Drew gave 
orders to his brokers, among whom the 50,000 shares 
had been distributed in small lots, to sell, and the whole 
load was dumped upon the bulls and eagerly swallowed 
by them before they were aware of its source. Soon the 
rumor that there had been a large issue of new stock 
spread like wildfire, striking terror into the bulls, and in 
a few minutes Erie reeled and tumbled to 65. A howl of 
delight went up from the bears and nearly every one was 
expecting to see it fall to 50, when it as suddenly wheeled 
again and shot back to 73. Like a great general stem- 
ming a panic among his men and turning a rout into 
victory, Vanderbilt commanded his brokers to stand firm 
and buy every share of Erie stock offered. Something 
like $5,000,000 worth of it was loaded upon him that day, 
but he stood up under it all without the slightest sign of 
being heavy laden, holding it with ease and even sending 
the price up ! The little bears were all scooped up in his 
net and the nerves of even their great leader himself were 
somewhat unsettled by this manifestation of tremendous 
power and determination. Drew had now flung upon the 
market all the stock he could command, and yet the price 
had gone up and left him with large short contracts un- 
covered. On the 3d of March his nerves received a fur- 
ther shock, for on that day, at the instance of Vanderbilt, 
Judge Barnard fulminated his third injunction, this time 
not against Drew alone but against the whole body of Erie 



80 A COUNTERBLAST. 

directors, peremptorily forbidding their issuing or using 
any stock of the company in addition to the 251,058 
shares outstanding at the last annual report. As 50,000 
new shares were already on the market and they had got 
Vanderbilt's money therefor, they could not restrain a 
slight smile at the Judge and his patron for this injunc- 
tion. But Drew could not join in this smile at all. He 
could think of nothing but <; them shorts" and was alarmed 
lest this last move had placed him in Vanderbilt's power 
once more. Nor did any of them long indulge in humor 
over the comical phase of this last move, but they seri- 
ously addressed themselves to the problem of breaking 
the cordon that was gathering around them. 

A week wore on. Vanderbilt pushed Erie steadily 
upward and it now stood at 78. During these days the 
directors came to the conclusion that " two can play at 
that game " of injunctions. The 10th was the day on 
which Drew had got to appear before Judge Barnard and 
show cause why he should not be turned out of Erie. He 
knew that the crisis of the whole situation must culminate 
on that day. But on the morning of the 9th the directors 
quietly went over to Brooklyn, and upon affidavits stating 
that a conspiracy had been entered into to injure the Erie 
Railway and speculate in its stock, and that Judge Bar- 
nard himself was interested in it and was using the power 
of his Court to help it on, an injunction was obtained from 
Judge Gilbert staying proceedings in all the suits that 
had been instituted, Judge Barnard being included in the 



fisk and gould's heads together. 81 

restraint, and ordering the directors to proceed in the 
management of the road precisely as if no suit had been 
instituted. This placed matters in a very interesting 
position, On one hand Judge Barnard had forbidden 
certain things to be done and therefore if the directors 
proceeded that functionary would visit them with his 
mighty vengeance for contempt of his Court ; on the other 
hand was the order of Judge Gilbert directing them to 
move forward in those same matters, so if they stood still 
they were equally liable to be punished by him for con- 
tempt of his Court. Drew, being a devout Methodist, 
probably never plays cards and so had most likely never 
heard of Hoyle's famous maxim, " When you are in 
doubt, take the trick;" but he had seen quite enough of 
law in his long life to know that a prisoner is always enti- 
tled to the benefit of any doubt, and Judge Barnard was the 
man the terror of whose process for contempt it was de- 
cided to brave. In this position the opposing forces rested 
on their arms facing each other the last night before the 
great decisive battle, knowing that on the morrow would 
come the final crisis of the campaign and that before the 
sun set again the laurels would be awarded to bull or 
bear, Vanderbilt or Drew. 

It had been a case of " love at sight " between Fisk 
and Gkmld. They recognized at once the elements of 
strength which their union would have and had been 
putting their heads together through all these months to 
improve any opportunity that might arise. Gould had 



82 DREW FRIGHTENED. 

retained the confidence of Vanderbilt all this tim^ and he 
now so far presumed upon this confidence as to suggest 
to Vanderbilt that as the day was to be one of much ex- 
citement in the Courts the bears might take advantage of 
it to depress Erie and it would therefore be advisable for 
the Commodore to give his brokers orders to sustain the 
market. Vanderbilt saw the propriety of tie course 
suggested. Could then played upon Drew's nerves by 
ominously hinting that Fisk was acting a little peculiar, 
might not put his 50,000 shares upon the market after 
all, and if he did not Vanderbilt would triumph and Erie 
might go to 200 or higher as Harlem did. This greatly 
increased the old man's alarm and his weak knees began 
to tremble badly. 

The morning of the 10th dawned. Vanderbilt gave an 
unlimited order to sustain the market, then standing at 
79. Drew scrutinized Fisk's actions and found they did 
look dubious, as Could said. He was seized with a fear 
that he was going to be duped in the house of his friends 
as he had duped others, and immediately sent orders for 
his brokers to buy Erie to cover his shorts. This was the 
moment Fisk was waiting for. His 50,000 shares were 
immediately distributed among numerous brokers in small 
lots and orders given to sell when the word came. The 
stock board met at 10 o'clock, and the street was already 
tremulous with nervous excitement. The presiding offi- 
cer commenoed calling the list of stocks and all were 
passed quickly with scarcely any dealings or bids till he 



BEDLAM LET LOOSE. 83 

called " Erie !" At that word, before it was off his lips, 
the thickly packed crowd of brokers bounded as if a mine 
had been sprung beneath them. Their united yells rent 
the air of the large room as had not been done for many 
a long day. They shouted till their faces were as red as 
demons', each trying to make himself heard above the 
rest, gesticulating frantically to the utmost extent of their 
physical power. It seemed more like a mad-house filled 
with raving maniacs suddenly released from constraint 
than a gathering of rational beings. Erie changed hands 
by the five and ten thousand shares per moment. The 
battle raged madly for ten minutes and the stock was 
going at 80, when the presiding officer announced that 
dealings in Erie must cease and called the next stock on 
the list. Instantly the whole body now bolted from the 
room and poured down the long, large staircase into the 
street like a wild sweeping torrent, leaving the vice-pres- 
ident to go through the formality of calling the list to the 
end to an empty room. On the street the battle was con- 
tinued and raged in still greater disorder, each of Van- 
derbilt's brokers forming the centre of an eddying circle 
in the grand whirlpool and quickly catching at all offers 
to sell, while Drew's men were equally busy and eager 
covering his shorts. The struggle was kept up with 
unabated fury till noon when Erie, under the combined 
purchases of Vanderbilt and Drew, touched 83. Fisk's 
men now received their word and flung his 50,000 shares. 
They were snatched up as beggar boys snatch at pennies 



84 



thrown among them and still ask for more. Still the 
battle raged on till those who had purchased got a chance 
to glance at the shares that had been delivered to them. 
It was then suddenly discovered that large quantities of 
brand-new stock, clean and unrumpled, issued to James 
Fisk, Jr., had been put upon the street that day. In- 
stantly and like wildfire a panic ran through the heart of 
Wall Street. Here, even more than elsewhere, rumors 
gather volume as they fiy, and rumor now soon had it 
that new stock had been dumped upon the street in 
unlimited quantities. The shock was like the work of 
magic. The antics of those who had gobbled down the 
new stock unsuspectingly now resembled the contortions 
of a goose that has swallowed a piece of red-hot iron 
mistaken for corn. Their retchings and eructations in the 
effort to disgorge were a rare mixture of the comic and 
painful to behold. All were eager to expel the indigest- 
ible, burning foreign matter from their maws, and sold 
to the first man who would buy. The panic extended 
even to Vanderbilt's allies. The men who were con- 
cerned with him in the new pool and who had made large 
outside investments under their agreement to run Erie up 
became utterly demoralized by the rumors flying wildly 
around them. Sharing the general conviction that the 
Drew party had triumphed and Vanderbilt been beaten, 
and knowing that in such an event Erie must tumble to 
40 or even lower, they made haste to sell ere the Commo- 
dore could countermand the order to sustain the* market, 



VANDERBILT LOADED DOWN. 



85 



and thus saddled all their loads upon their chief before 
the news of the situation reached him. 

Under the panic Erie reeled heavily and made a sudden 
lunge down to 71 — a fall of 12 per cent, in two hours. 
There it halted quite firmly, making the wonder of the 
day, not that it fell so quick, but that it did not tumble 
50 per cent, further. The whole shock of the battle, the 
whole huge load of the market, was sustained by one 
man, standing alone in his mighty power, deserted by his 
allies, who had sold out upon him at the trying moment 
and skulked away. But his own brokers had already 
been much the heaviest purchasers, so the additional 
amount loaded upon him was not very large compara- 
tively, and as they held a vast volume of stock and still 
bought as it fell, they were able to stem the tide at 71 
and hold it firmly. 

When the panic started news of the crisis was sent to 
Vanderbilt and he was asked if his brokers should sell. 
" Sell !! you fool! No ! ! ! Buy every share offered!" 
was the response roared by the man who saw with the 
quick eye of genius. One moment of hesitation, one 
faltering word of command, one instant of wavering in 
his position, and his lines would be hopelessly broken ; 
Erie, of which he now held millions, would break and 
tumble 50 per cent. ; Central, Hudson River, and Harlem, 
all of which he carried on his shoulders, would follow in 
the panic and he would be hopelessly swamped. He took 
in the whole situation at a glance and knew that Erie 



86 FISK AND GOULD WIN THE FIRST HAND. 

must be sustained at all hazards now, and by the force of 
his will alone the tide was stemmed, the panic stopped 
short, and disaster stayed. 

The battle was done. Fisk and Gould had triumphed 
over Vanderbilt, defeating his purpose and hopes while 
relieving him of some §10,000,000 of his money, and had 
also bitten Drew quite severely by the way — just for a 
little side diversion. Fisk's dubious" looks ceased the 
moment they had produced their desired effect in leading 
Drew to give orders to cover his contracts, and when the 
old gent learned an hour later that Fisk was going to 
sell, he sent a fleet messenger to countermand his order 
to buy ; but it was too late. His brokers had acted 
promptly and his shorts, contracted at about 70, had been 
covered at about 80. Still, the result of the whole battle 
of three weeks was such that the veteran leader of the 
bears was eminently satisfied, and he heartily joined in 
the chuckle that ran round the self-satisfied circle 
gathered at Erie headquarters in West Street that even- 
ing around the uncovered chest containing Vanderbilt's 
millions in exchange for the small slips of clean paper 
ground out by their little mill only a few days before. 

The roar of the wild battle in Wall Street had com- 
pletely drowned the loudest noise in the neighboring 
halls of justice that day, and Judge Barnard's deepest 
and most powerful pipes had been as the squeaks of 
a penny whistle beside a battery of booming cannon. 
Nevertheless he had piped away after his fashion, vent- 



BARNARD ON THE WAR PATH. 87 

ing much righteous indignation, overflowing with a 
more than noble Koman's valor and virtue, conclud- 
ing in shrill tones, " My voice is still for war." The 
man he had sternly ordered to appear before the 
majesty of his law that morning, shielded himself 
behind a judge of co-ordinate power with Barnard, 
found it inconvenient to attend and failed to put in an 
appearance. Moreover, as " his Honor " took his seat 
upon the bench that morning he was himself treated to a 
little taste of injunctions, being at that moment, without 
the slightest awe of his august dignity, diamond studs, 
frilled shirt front, and velvet coat, served with Judge Gil- 
bert's order peremptorily forbidding him to take any fur- 
ther proceedings in the matter of the orders and injunc- 
tions he had so freely fulminated against Drew and the 
whole body of Erie directors. He was amazed at such an 
extraordinary act on the part of his Brooklyn compeer, 
promptly declared it utterly null and void, and proceeded 
to treat it with entire contempt. But while he himself 
thus treated with contempt an order of the Supreme Court 
on the one hand, on the other he proposed to visit sum- 
mary punishment upon those who had presumed to dis- 
regard his own annulled orders. Drew had failed to 
appear. That was contempt despite an order of the Su- 
preme Court staying proceedings and telling him he need 
not appear. That day's history in Wall Street had dis- 
closed that the Erie directors had issued new stock after 
" his Honor " had enjoined them from so doing. That was 



88 SURPRISED AT MOKNING DEVOTIONS. 

contempt despite a subsequent order of equal authority 
authorizing them to do as they pleased about it. At least, 
so thought the pure-minded and immaculate Barnard, 
consequently he suffered not the majesty of his law to be 
slighted. 

Before the sun was well up the next morning the coat- 
tails of all the sheriffs and deputy sheriffs that could be 
found in the celebrated new Court House were stuffed 
full of formidable documents bearing at the bottom what 
those who claim to speak from acquaintance pronounced 
to be the sign manual of George G. Barnard, judex. The 
said savage-looking documents with the formidable name 
at the bottom were writs for the arrest of the whole posse 
of Erie directors, including " the body of James Fisk, 
Jr.," for contempt, and " his Honor " now made these 
pellets of justice as plentiful around the City Hall as Fisk 
had made Erie slock in Wall Street the day before. The 
Erie directors, after a night of rest and pleasant dreams of 
victory and new fortunes made, had assembled at their 
headquarters in West Street again on the morning of the 
11th and were on their knees taking a fresh matutinal 
peep into the chestful of pleasing souvenirs of their friend 
Vanderbilt. In this morning devotion they were sur- 
prised by the arrival of a messenger nearly out of breath 
from the haste he had made to warn them that a small 
army of Judge Barnard's minions was in eager search for 
them, armed with writs for their arrest and intending to 
drag their precious bodies before "his Honor" of the 



EARLY LESSONS IN LAW. 89 

august and terrible shirt frill. Upon the explosion of this 
shell in their midst, the knees of Drew smote each other 
as might a sinner's at the sound of Gabriel's trumpet, his 
countenance assumed a most woe-begone expression, and 
ghastly spectres of Ludlow Street jail haunted his aged vis- 
ion. Fisk's first thought was for the security of that chest. 
He hastily closed the lid and located himself with his two 
hundred pounds and more of flesh on top thereof, an- 
nounced that he should not get off till Barnard's dogs 
took him off, and called a council of war to meet around 
him to deliberate on the situation. 

At Brattleboro in his boyhood he had often seen perse- 
cuted individuals whom the sheriff wanted to see very 
particularly, run through the covered bridge which here 
spans the Connecticut and when they had safely reached 
the New Hampshire side, turn suddenly round, put thumb 
to nose and set their fingers in a lively wiggle at the 
Vermont sheriff and kindly inquire the state of his health. 
This early practical instruction in the complexity of 
American jurisprudence resulting from our political sys- 
tem had amused him too many times in his youth to be 
forgotten and his knowledge of law thus gained now 
served him a good turn. The Erie offices were close upon 
the river bank directly opposite the ferry to Jersey City. 
It immediately struck Fisk that it would cut the Gordian 
knot of their present predicament and be a good joke on 
Barnard to step aboard the next boat and take a little 
pleasure trip to the Jersey side of the Hudson. That being 



90 PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT. 

the terminus of the Erie' road, they could superintend 
the affairs of their corporation as well there as in New 
York ; and close by the water's edge where the ferry 
would land them stands Taylor's Hotel, an establishment 
that makes excellent provision for all the needs of the 
inner man. The proposition had so much to recommend 
it to their urgent necessity and so few drawbacks that 
it struck his fellow miserables as a brilliant idea and 
was immediately adopted by a unanimous vote. Hasty 
preparations for the foreign tour were at once com- 
menced. Fisk deftly removed his two hundred pound 
corpus from the chest and Drew, as treasurer, placed 
therein all the funds of the Erie treasury, locked 
it securely and placed it in charge of two trusted 
porters to be taken to the ferry. Having thus at- 
tended to his official duties, he proceeded to gather up 
his private funds — the proceeds of his brilliant manage- 
ment as confidential agent of Mr. Vanderbilt's pool, the 
reward of lending men money to buy his own stock, 
selling out his most intimate friends and various similar 
brilliant exploits — requiring several small trunks to hold 
them, and sent them in the wake of the chest. Fisk pro- 
ceeded to stuff the pockets of his coat, vest and pants with 
the greenbacks gathered as the fruit of wearing a dubious 
look in Drew's presence the previous morning, smiling as 
he did so to note the mournful glances cast at his pleth- 
oric pockets by the despondent old gentleman. Haste 
being imperative, the preparations were few and soon 



" CONSCIENCE MAKES COWARDS." 91 

made, and now the band, taking with them such of the 
books, papers and more important documents as they could 
easily carry, made for the ferry, Fisk being careful to fall 
in directly behind the chest, so small had grown his con- 
fidence in human nature in general and in Daniel Drew 
in particular. As the party emerged from the building 
to the sidewalk, three or four policemen happened to be 
conversing together on the opposite corner. This being 
the general employment of New York police, that circum- 
stance should not have caused any alarm ; but 

" Conscience makes cowards of us all," 

and the absconding directors instinctively halted for a 
moment at the sight of the brass-buttoned Hibernians with 
lignum vitce clubs, apprehensive lest they were stationed 
there in the service of Barnard and were waiting for this 
appearance. The strange tableau which the directors 
thus presented, with their confused countenances and 
furtive glances, naturally attracted the attention and 
fixed upon themselves the stare of the policemen. Their 
first apprehension now became certainty, and the in- 
stinctive impulse to self -protection and personal safety 
becoming dominant, they broke and ran, — not as sheep 
do, in a united band in the direction of the one that 
starts first, but some one way and some another. In 
their utter demoralization, they reverted to the condition 
of mind existing before the Christian era, when stranger 
and enemy were synonymous terms, and were now 



92 GOTTSDONiNERKREUZSCHOCKSCHWERENOTH ! 

anxiously suspicious of every man unknown to them that 
they met, lest he should prove to be armed with one of 
Judge Barnard's writs for their arrest. The meandering 
lines traced by their flight under such circumstances, their 
sudden dodgings and duckings and turning of sharp 
corners, were comic in the extreme. A few of them only 
made at once for the ferry, but of these few Fish was one. 
The porters bearing the chest of funds, conscious of no 
offence, had not been at all disturbed at sight of the 
policemen but had moved directly on to the ferry and so 
were somewhat in advance of the party who had halted 
from fear. The boat with the chest and porters on board 
was just starting when such of the fugitives as ran in 
that direction arrived upon the slip ; but Fisk seeing that 
chest was like Hans Breitmann, the soldier in Maryland, 
when scouts came in reporting a rebel town near by in 
which there was lager bier. 

" Gottsdonnerkreuzschockschwerenoth ! 
How Breitmann broked de bush ! 
0, let me see dat lager bier ! 
O, let me at him rush ! " 

He of the plethoric pockets made a desperate leap for the 
boat, successfully accomplished the hazardous feat and 
was safe — safe from the water ready to receive him, safe 
from the wrath of the virtuous Barnard, safe near that 
chest. He wiped his brow, puffed for a moment, then 
imitated those funny men he had seen pass so hastily 
through the bridge at Brattleboro years before. 



LANDED ON A PEACEFUL SHORE. 93 

The other directors made their way to Jersey in 
straggling parties as best they could. Some went by the 
ferry ; others, fearing they would now be watched for 
there, got themselves privately ferried over in small row 
boats. By nightfall all but two of the most unoffending 
ones had succeeded in placing the Hudson between them- 
selves and danger. The two luckless ones fell into the 
sheriff's clutches and were marched into the august pres- 
ence of Judge Barnard but were released under heavy bail. 

As soon as Msk had reached the land of safety and 
taken some refreshments, he took up his position at the 
head of the slip in the ferry house and, as the successive 
boats came in, walked up and down with his hands in his 
trowsers pockets, one of Park and Tilford's finest parti- 
gas in his mouth, overflowing with spirits and humor, 
and made many kind inquiries about his friends Barnard 
and Vanderbilt. He welcomed each small squad of his 
fellow exiles with much delight as they straggled in, 
taking them warmly by the hand with the cheery words 
" Well, boys, how's everything over'n York ? " 

With the first shades of evening twilight, March 1 1th, 
1868, a merrier company than is often gathered around 
the festive board in Taylor's Hotel sat down for "a feast 
of reason and a flow of soul." United once more, with 
the exception of the hapless two, after many struggles 
and dangers, 

" — multum ille et terris jactatus et alto 

Vi Superum, saevi memorem Bamardia ob iram, 

Multa quoque et bello passus," 



94 " FOKSAN ET HAEC OLIM." 

a right merry band were they now. Safe from all harm 
or intrusion, protected by the broad segis of the land of 
the Camden & Amboy Railroad, otherwise known as the 
State of New Jersey, the home of large mosquitoes, they 
recounted the incidents of the past three days with an 
abundant flow of wit and wine, enjoying that weird fasci- 
nation and pleasure that hovers over dangers well passed. 






CHAPTEE VI. 

EXILED IN JERSEY A GREAT SCARE AND NOBODY HURT 

SECRET TRIPS ACROSS THE HUDSON DREW SHADOWED AND 

EUCHRED BATTLE IN THE LEGISLATURE A SETTLEMENT 

HOME AGAIN ON THE WITNESS-STAND. 

When the exiled directors had fully vented their humor 
and were ready to turn their attention to the practical 
affairs of their trust once more, the first step was to 
secure a firm legal footing in their new abode. An agent 
was immediately sent to Trenton, a bill making the Erie 
Railway a New Jersey corporation was pushed through 
the Legislature in two hours, was soon signed by the 
Governor, and Erie was now perfectly at home in its new 
quarters. , 

Another practical question that immediately presented 
itself for settlement related to the division of the spoils of 
the recent campaign. Of course the $10,000,000 of new 
bonds issued had not been negotiated at par. For the 
$5,000,000 worth issued to Mr. Fisk the Erie treasury 
realized $3,625,000, and as the stock into which he 
converted his bonds had been disposed of for about 



96 GROWLING OVER THE SPOILS. 

$4,000,000, there remained the sum of $375,000 to be 
divided among the parties to compensate them for their 
valuable services in getting the stock upon the market 
When it was decided to issue the $10,000,000 of new 
bonds, a written agreement was entered into by Drew, 
Fisk, Gould and another, as to the manner in which the 
profits should be divided ; but Fisk having come to put 
little faith in Drew's agreements, even though in writing, 
declined to hand over to the keeper of Mr. Vanderbilt's 
late pool the $375,000 which he held as the profit of his 
half of the transaction, till Drew also accounted for his 
profits in the late campaign, in accordance with his agree- 
ment. The wrangle was finally settled by Fisk giving 
the treasurer his check for $375,000 instead of surren- 
dering the cash in his possession. This check was 
uncertified, which of course made it nothing but a due 
bill, and therefore of just as much value as Mr. Drew's 
agreement, and no more. It was however accompanied 
by about $180,000 worth of stock, as collateral, and the 
amount realized on this may be taken as the treasurer's 
profits from this single item of the day's transactions, for 
history does not record that Mr. Drew ever got that check 
of James Fisk, Jr., for $375,000 cashed. Half that sum 
being equally divided among the other three parties to 
the agreement, Fisk and Gould must have profited 
upward of $60,000 each by this one item of the day's 
transactions, and they were not men that would fail to 
have several items of a like profitable nature. 




T^Y GOULD. 



CHEATING PUBLIC SENTIMENT. 97 

These two matters being settled, the next thing to be 
attended to was public sentiment. Their proceedings had 
been of a nature that would have created a very unpleas- 
ant odor around their names in Wall Street, even had 
they remained upon the field and exerted themselves to 
counteract an unfavorable judgment; and the evil wrought 
by their deeds had been greatly enhanced by the sudden 
withdrawal from circulation of so many millions of 
•currency as they had carried with them to Jersey. Money 
had been made very scarce all at once, causing serious 
embarrassment in financial matters and still further de- 
pressing the stock market heavily beyond what was done 
by the demoralizing effect of the issue of $10,000,000 
of new stock. Both wind and tide had thus been set 
strongly against them and the current was increasing 
daily as the evil effects of their doings developed. But 
far worse than all this was the stench of having fled the 
State. The public had long since grown so indifferent to 
the course of events in Wall Street that, whatever their 
exploits there, it would have been regarded only as a 
" diamond cut diamond " proceeding and after a little 
harmless noise of the bulls and bears and a few equally 
harmless newspaper articles, all would have been forgotten 
and their names would not have been materially injured. 
But they now rested under the stigma of being fugitives 
from justice, and that circumstance alone branded them 
with great disgrace in the public eye. Therefore they 
now exerted themselves strenuously to counteract all this 

D 



9S TREATING PUBLIC SENTIMENT. 

and turn the tide in their favor. To all the reporters, 
interviewers and committees that now visited them by the 
score from every quarter, they represented themselves as 
the most disinterested and self-sacrificing champions of 
the public interests against the monopolizing schemes of 
Vanderbilt and affirmed that all they had done was not 
only a justifiable but absolutely necessary means to that 
most desirable end, and their only way to defend the road 
committed to their trust. And instead of being fugitives 
from justice, they claimed to be martyrs to the public weal 
and persecuted victims of the most corrupt judge that 
ever disgraced a bench, alleging that Barnard was nothing 
but the obsequious tool of Vanderbilt, in league with him 
to speculate in Erie stock, and scandalously abusing his 
power and position as a judge to harrass them for thwart- 
ing his knavish schemes. As these allegations had a firm 
basis in the facts of the case, the position in which they 
pictured themselves was very plausible and the tub thus 
constructed to sail a stormy sea would have been an ex- 
cellent one had it only had a bottom. But to think of Fisk 
and Gould in the character of self-sacrificing guardians 
of public and corporate interests strikes one as extremely 
comic, and how much they surpassed Vanderbilt in seek- 
ing the welfare of the Erie Railway and the commercial 
interests of New York the sequel has left no room to 
doubt ; but their character was not then developed or 
known and Mr. Eldridge, their president, enjoyed a high 
reputation both as a railroad manager and a man of 



NEW YORK ROUGHS. 99 

character. Their agreement with Vanderbilt at the time 
of their election had not yet leaked out to the public and 
their several purposes were not yet patent. Therefore 
their tub, bottomless though it was, sailed very well tem- 
porarily. None of their visitors departed hungry or 
thirsty. All left with a very favorable impression of the 
kind-heartedness of the exiles, and the spirit of hospitality 
and bonhomie that pervaded Taylor's Hotel distilled a 
gentle infusion of roses into the ink of the newspaper 
men, who now clearly saw two sides to the question and 
began to think the generous spirits chased out of New 
York by Judge Barnard not so black as they had been 



And now occurred a most ludicrous incident which 
served to help the exiles somewhat in turning sympathy 
in their favor. On the 16th, a large body of New York 
" roughs " of the worst type made their appearance in 
Jersey City, about the ferry house, Erie depot and Tay- 
lor's Hotel. The news immediately spread that Vander- 
bilt had offered a reward of $50,000 for Drew, Fisk or 
Eldridge and this party had come over intending to kidnap 
all the directors they could find and take them back within 
the jurisdiction of the terrible Barnard by main force and 
with as much violence to Jersey law as might be neces- 
sary. Great excitement ran through the city at the news 
and a large crowd soon gathered in the vicinity. A large 
number of Erie employes was immediately summoned 
from the work-shops and formed into a body guard to 



100 FOKT TAYLOR. 

protect the directors, and Taylor's Hotel was at once and 
not inaptly dubbed " Fort Taylor." A heavy detach- 
ment of police was detailed for service within and about 
" the Fort " and the whole force of the city was 
instructed that if a rocket were sent up any time during 
the night they should regard it as a signal to hasten to 
the threatened quarter. General fear of a riot prevailed, 
the stores were closed in the evening, the streets in the 
disturbed quarter were avoided and the militia was placed 
under orders to rally at a signal. The excitement of the 
situation was rather enjoyed by the directors, and 
especially by Mr. Fisk, who now bustled about with a 
most determined looking visage, mounted his guard, 
issued orders, puffed away at his cigar, kept up a con- 
stant discharge of puns, vowed he would never be taken 
alive, and braved all the terrors and hazards of the deep 
and Judge Barnard's jurisdiction by daring trips across 
the Hudson in a small row boat under cover of the 
darkness and fog to act as a spy in the camp of his 
enemies, a la King Arthur, and get something good at 
Delmonico's and elsewhere. No demonstration whatever 
was made by the roughs, most of whom returned to New 
York within an hour or two after their first appearance. 
Fort Taylor was kept heavily garrisoned, however, and 
continued to wear on the inside the air of a besieged 
fortress. New rumors of an imminent attack came into 
camp at intervals of two or three days, to renew the- 
excitement and prevent the situation from becoming 



A GREAT SCARE. 101 

monotonous. This state of things was kept up for two 
weeks, when, the novelty and excitement of the episode 
having grown stale, the self-imposed siege was raised 
without a single instance of disorder having occurred, all 
the roughs having long ago retired to their favorite 
haunts in the Five Points and elsewhere and quite 
forgotten the affair in their active training for Alder- 
men. 

A great handle was made of this affair by the exiles to 
show the reckless character of their persecutors and turn 
sentiment against Vanderbilt, as it could only be a man 
whose schemes were villainous and who hesitated at no 
acts of violence and lawlessness, that would resort to the 
assistance of New York roughs to help him on. Of course 
Vanderbilt had no more to do with it than had the King 
of Siam and it was the height of absurdity to represent 
him as doing such a thing. It would be much more 
supposable that Fisk himself hired the men to come over 
and that the whole affair was a contrived plot to excite an 
unfavorable sentiment against Vanderbilt. At any rate 
this turn was given to it. 

But, far more than by any of these means, a popular 
feeling in favor of the exiles and a disposition to look 
upon them as the opponents of monopoly and champions 
of the interests of the public and- the Erie Eailway, was 
created by their lowering the charges for fare and freight 
nearly one third, entering into a fierce competition with 
the Commodore and his Central and running tneir road 



102 FARES AND FREIGHT REDUCED. 

at losing rates, which the money Vanderbilt had supplied 
them with easily enabled them to do. 

In the midst of all these efforts to turn sentiment in 
their favor, a bill to prevent the consolidation of the Erie 
and Central roads under the control of one man, or parties 
in his interest, to guard against monopoly of railroads, 
to establish a broad gauge connection to the West, and to 
legalize the recent nev: issue of Eric stock, was introduced 
into the Legislature at Albany. Under the various 
influences the exiles had brought to bear, a strong senti- 
ment now set in in their favor, and petitions and memorials 
and letters poured in from all parts of the State, especially 
from New York and all along the line of the Erie road, 
upon the grave law-makers at Albany, praying for the 
passage of the bill to defeat Vanderbilt's monopoly 
schemes, and a large portion of the press took up the 
cudgel on the same side. But Vanderbilt was no com- 
mon antagonist. He had started with things much in his 
favor, or against the runaways, and had done nothing of 
a doubtful legal look. The New York Courts had given 
him their fullest sanction and the adverse order which the 
Drew party had obtained of the Brooklyn judge to serve 
their purposes of the 10th had been indignantly dismissed 
on the day for its hearing, the judge intimating that it 
had been procured in a scandalous and fraudulent 
manner, thus making it look that Vanderbilt's cause was 
wholly within, while that of the Drew party was wholly 
without, the pale of law. The sentiment and influence of 



vandekbilt's metal tried. 103 

Wall Street, too, had been decidedly in favor of Vander- 
bilt at the first and had steadily increased, for matters 
there had been placed in a very trying and critical 
position by the action of the fugitives, and were daily 
getting worse. All stocks were falling, money was very 
scarce and commanded high rates of interest, many 
brokers were failing, and the turn which affairs should 
take in the crisis depended wholly upon the course of 
Vanderbilt. He was bearing a tremendous load upon 
his shoulders. All his stocks were falling, gradually but 
constantly. With the least sign of wavering or weakness, 
he would be swamped and there would result a greater 
crash in the stock market than had been known since the 
era of stock speculation commenced. In this hour of 
supreme trial the metal of which he was made gave no 
uncertain ring. His genius as well as the immensity of 
his resources now loomed up like the shaft of Bunker 
Hill. With unshaken nerves he issued instructions to 
his brokers, holding the market as he wished, went 
off for a drive with his fast horses in the afternoon, 
and played whist in the evening, the merriest and 
seemingly the freest from care of any of the company. 
But there were circumstances not known to the public 
that enabled him to see clearly and feel confident. The 
exiles took to their New Jersey life not unpleasantly 
at first, but the Pater Anchises of this epic soon grew 
lonesome, despondent and homesick in his expatriation 
and became anxious for some settlement of the difficulties 



104 BLESSINGS OF THE SABBATH. 

that would allow him to return to his home and attend 
Methodist prayer meetings with his family once more. 
While the young and jovial Fisk continued in the finest 
spirits, Drew pined and refused to be comforted, and 
when the merry company gathered around their evening 
camp fires, smoked, listened to Fisk's puns, laughed and 
sung war songs, the old man broke in at intervals with 
the strangely discordant refrain, " I want to go home." 
Sunday disarms sheriffs and Judge Barnard, and, 
pleasantly as time seemed to hang on their hands, it was 
amusing to note the promptitude with which the whole 
party laid down their pipes and started for the ferry 
when the clock struck twelve Saturday night. They 
appreciated the blessings of Christianity or the institu- 
tion of the Sabbath very highly now and improved the 
immunity it gave them to appear boldly in their familiar 
haunts. Fisk may have attended church but Drew 
embraced the opportunity to call on his friend Vanderbilt. 
Monday morning found them back at their posts with 
military promptitude. But Drew was now suspected. 
He was missed from barracks at night and Fisk detailed 
a detective to watch all his movements. He was followed 
up the shore to Weehawken ferry, thence across to the 
city and to the house of Vanderbilt. The detective 
returned and reported. It was as had been suspected. 
Drew was intriguing for a compromise and they knew he 
would do anything with his friends and Erie if he could 
only escape unharmed himself. Soon it was found the 



DREW SHADOWED AND EUCHRED. 105 

funds of the Erie treasury had been taken to New York 
by Mr. Treasurer Drew- On learning this Eisk immedi- 
ately got all of Drew's private funds, which were still in 
the Jersey bank, attached. No one unacquainted with 
the old gentleman's facial peculiarities can imagine the 
comic expression of mingled surprise and disappointment 
that marked his countenance when he returned from 
what he supposed a secret journey and found how com- 
pletely his pupil had euchred him. He found he had 
been training up a power to be more than a match for 
him. The funds of the Erie treasury came back where 
James Fisk, Jr., could daily enjoy the sight of them. 
These secret visits told Vanderbilt that the position of 
things across the river was not pleasant and made him 
confident that no more Erie stock would be issued, which 
was his greatest danger, and he saw that he had only to 
hold things as they were to force his enemies to terms 
ultimately. 

Despite all the efforts of his opponents,, therefore, the 
star of Yanderbilt was still much in the ascendant and 
the moment anything was to be done at Albany the su- 
periority of his position at once showed itself. He had 
been long familiar with the ways of the New York 
Legislature and the considerations most potent with law- 
makers, and the Central, of which he was now master, 
had long had things quite its own way there. Conse- 
quently the bill introduced in the interest of the Drew 
party was promptly rejected on the 27th of March by the 



106 DEFEAT OF THE ERIE BILL. 

decisive vote of 83 to 32, despite all the petitions that 
had been sent in requesting its passage. 

This overwhelming defeat taught the Fort Taylor 
warriors that public sentiment was not exactly the harp 
to play upon if they would charm the ear of legislators, 
and that they could not successfully wield more potent 
influences at such arm's-length while their antagonist was 
on the battle field in propria persona. It was decided 
that some one of the principals must be present at the 
scene of action instead of longer trusting to mere agents 
and telegraph and mail, and Jay Gould was detailed 
from headquarters to go to Albany to remove the preju- 
dices of the legislators and place things before them in a 
clearer light, taking along half a million dollars for pocket 
money and hotel expenses. He made his advent in 
Albany March 30th, registered his name at the Delavan 
House, took one of the finest suites of rooms, and had 
just got nicely installed in them when he received a very 
urgent invitation to visit New York, the invitation being 
signed by Judge George G. Barnard and presented by a 
gentleman so excessively polite in his attentions as to 
insist that Mr. Gould should accept the invitation and 
either go down with him immediately or give assurance 
in the shape of half a million of dollars that he would 
appear at the appointed place on the following Saturday. 
There was important work on hand at Albany that 
needed attending to immediately, therefore for this and 
other reasons the required assurance was given in prefer- 



LEGISLATIVE MACHINERY. 107 

ence to going with the officious gentleman, and Mr. Gould 
set earnestly about the business in hand. 

The New York Legislature has for several years 
manifested unlimited faith in " investigating committees " 
as an invaluable adjunct to legislative machinery and as 
the most reliable and efficient mode of getting at the 
truth in many matters. Especially is this the favorite 
method of procedure if a large corporation is concerned or 
a question involving a large amount of money comes up 
for consideration. Either some standing committee is 
directed to inquire into the state of things generally and 
report its opinion for the information and guidance of the 
Legislature, or, in an extraordinary case, a special com- 
mittee is appointed for the purpose. As the committee 
report, so the Legislature is pretty sure to decide, hence 
the committee often become men whom it is very impor- 
tant to persuade by all possible arguments to take a 
favorable view of matters. It is this circumstance that 
has rendered the Chairmanship of the Committee on Rail- 
ways a position so very much sought after and the next 
most desirable place after the Speakership. The 
successful candidate for Speaker generally assuages the 
disappointment of his most prominent rival in his own 
party by appointing him Chairman of this committee, for 
then, though he has failed of the highest honors, he is 
pretty sure of returning home at the close of the session 
comfortably provided for for life. And in fact all the 
members of this committee, unless they have uncom- 



108 ONE MR. MATTOON. 

monly poor luck, can rely upon returning to their 
constituents very much bettered in worldly condition. 

Even prior to the last grand master-stroke of the Erie 
directors in Wall Street, the queer movements of the 
stock, the general rumors of corruption and unlawful 
acts and the extraordinary litigation instituted against the 
managers, had produced such a strong impression that 
there was something decidedly wrong that a special 
committee of five, to inquire into and report upon the 
condition of the Erie Railway, was appointed by the 
Legislature March 5th. This committee achieved great 
temporary celebrity and was known as the " Mattoon 
Committee," from the name of its most conspicuous mem- 
ber. Now, Mr. Mattoon was not one of your bigoted, 
prejudiced, opinionated men who prejudge a case and 
having formed a bias beforehand, shut their minds to the 
influence of all arguments and refuse to look at the 
matter in a new light or modify their opinion. He was 
one of those lofty natures whose minds are always open 
to conviction, who are not only willing but even eager to 
receive further light and be convinced that their views are 
erroneous and delight to admit their error and adopt the 
right position. Being of this peculiar mental cast, Mr. 
Mattoon very naturally deemed it indispensable to go 
straight to the fountain head for light immediately upon 
being appointed on the investigating committee. He 
visited the chiefs of the Drew faction to hear their side of 
the story and listen carefully to their arguments, and 



WORTH OF THE LAST WORD. 109 

then he visited Mr. Vanderbilt to hear his cause and the 
opposing arguments. So intricate was the case and so 
difficult was it to get at the real merits that a single 
hearing seemed not to set the Mattoon mind and con- 
science at rest as to the right of the matter and his duty 
in the premises, and therefore he found it necessary to 
make several visits to each party in order that full justice 
might be done. Singularly enough, Mr. Mattoon seemed 
ever to incline to the views of the party that had his ear 
last, hence it became a matter of much more than usual 
importance who should have the last word. Some base 
spirits, judging from their own evil natures, insinuated 
that something more powerful than mere verbal argu- 
ments were brought to bear upon this mind ever so open 
to conviction, but it may be sufficient to satisfy a certain 
type of mind that these insinuations were only ^vile 
calumnies to state that there has never been produced in 
the matter any evidence that would constitute "legal 
proof." The investigation had been thus carried on for 
more than a month, during which time each party had 
several times thought the unbiased mind finally fixed in 
its favor, but only to find itself granted a further hearing. 
When at last the committee felt ready to report, it so 
happened that the other four members were equally 
divided, two desiring a favorable and two an unfavorable 
report upon the condition of the Erie Railway and its 
management. Mr. Mattoon finding himself thus holding 
the deciding vote, became suddenly impressed with the 



HO GOULD ASTOUNDED. 

gravity and responsibility of his position and the great 
necessity of proceeding conscientiously in the matter and 
requested a little further time to hear any further 
argument that might be offered, reflect and make up his 
mind. The report was still further delayed for his 
accommodation, and the matter stood in this position 
when Mr. Gould reached Albany. Being now on the 
ground, he felt his chance for getting the important last 
word, and so a favorable report, was much improved and 
it was for this reason that he much preferred not to 
accompany Judge Barnard's polite messenger to New 
York immediately. He now applied himself vigorously 
to bring the most cogent arguments to bear upon Mr. 
Mattoon and remove the last cobwebs of doubt from the 
mind of the conscientious Senator. And he finally parted 
with him satisfied that he had had the last word, supplied 
the dust that was to turn the scales, and that a favorable 
report would be made so that further legislation favor- 
able to Erie would be easily secured. The report was 
made April 1st, and it was unfavorable to -tJrie. Mr. 
Mattoon had placed his signature with the two whose 
views were of the Vanderbilt hue. Gould expressed 
himself " utterly astounded," when he heard how Mat- 
toon had voted, but still he despaired not. 

On Saturday morning Mr. Gould presented himself in 
accordance with Judge Barnard's invitation, and after 
much wrangling and some singular legal gymnastics he 
was remanded to the charge of the sheriff. He, however. 



AN ILLNESS NOT SERIOUS. Ill 

speedily made his way back to Albany, taking the sheriff 
-along as a travelling companion. When the time arrived 
for the sheriff to produce the body of Jay Grould in court 
in New York again, Mr. Grould did as some Sophomores 
do in college when they wish to get away from recitations 
for a short time — he fell suddenly ill and got a physician's 
certificate that he was under treatment and should be 
•excused from attendance. With this instead of the body, 
the sheriff went back to New York and the magic certifi- 
cate of the physician seemed to satisfy the mysteriously 
abating ire of the New York judge. And as the 
Sophomore finds that he is in no great danger soon after 
the physician has left a prescription, a certificate of ill 
health, and departed, but tears up the prescription, care- 
fully preserves the certificate and goes off to visit some 
young lady cousin, so Mr. Grould found that he was not 
in too feeble a condition to devote himself earnestly to the 
difficult task of reversing the unfavorable votes that had 
been given and turning the tide in favor of Erie. 

The defeat of the Erie bill March 27th and the un- 
favorable report of the committee April 1st, seemed to 
announce the entire triumph of Vanderbilt and the 
•certain and speedy doom of Drew and his adherents. 
Their influence was very sensibly felt in the Stock Ex- 
change, and Central, which had fallen from 132 to 109 in 
the three weeks of depression, instantly rallied again three 
or four per cent, and other stocks felt the influence. But 
Grould was not in the least disheartened. He surveyed 



112 GOULD RETURNS TO THE CHARGE. 

the position carefully and determined to win the smile of 
the Legislature yet. His rooms at the Delavan House 
became the favorite resort of many of the legislators. 
They all departed with smiling faces, and Mr. Gould 
soon had little left of his check book except the stumps. 
On the 13th of April a bill of precisely the same import as 
that rejected by the House March 27th, was introduced 
into the Senate and the battle for its success now became 
gigantic. One man was said to have come to Albany 
furnished with $100,000 to work for Vanderbilt's interest 
and to have been given $70,000 by Gould to run away 
with Vanderbilt's $100,000. One Senator was openly 
accused of receiving $15,000 from one side and $^20,000 
from the other. Many minor incidents of the struggle 
were equally unique and interesting. It was a battle of 
the giants and Erie must win this time or surrender at dis- 
cretion. On the ISth the bill passed the Senate by a vote 
of 17 to 12 — Mr. Mattoon voting for the bill. The 
result took the public by surprise and Wall Street felt a 
little shudder. The bill was sent down to the House and 
the members of the lower branch of the Legislature were 
rubbing their hands with delight that it had now come 
their turn to be tickled as the upper branch had been. 
The lobby was out in full force in light drab overcoats, 
diamond studs, large watch-chains and rubicund noses. 
Every train from New York brought new recruits for the 
battle. April 20th was the day for the grand final shock, 
and the members took their seats of honor eager for 



THE ERIE BILL PASSED. 



113 



business to begin, each hoping his vote would be an 
object of Gould and Vanderbilt's rival bidding. The 
decisive moment approached and the bill was called up. 
In a few minutes a sickening shudder like that which was 
felt in Wall Street the day Fisk threw the last $5,000,000 
of Erie stock upon the market ran through the Assembly. 
Hearts sank and hopes of fortune vanished. The news 
went round that Vanderbilt had tied up his purse strings 
and would not " bleed " another dollar. The wrath of the 
disappointed members was unbounded. The bill rejected 
three weeks before by a vote of 83 to 32, was now rushed 
through in the storm of rage by a vote of 101 to 6. Sev- 
eral other bills designed to injure the Central road and 
spite Vanderbilt were introduced at once for revenge. The 
bill went to the Governor and became a law by the signa- 
ture of Euben E. Fenton. 

This bill Judge Barnard aptly described as " a bill to 
legalize counterfeit money." When its passage was 
made known at the Stock Exchange by telegraph, it was 
regarded as the defeat of Vanderbilt and the warning of 
a panic. The stocks with which Vanderbilt was known 
to be heavily loaded fell at once and large short sales 
were made in Central and Erie, when in another hour 
Central bounded from 112 to 120 and Erie from 66 to 71. 
Everybody was utterly astounded and puzzled at a move- 
ment so utterly at variance with the influence of the 
news. But it soon leaked out that Vanderbilt had not 
withdrawn his opposition at Albany without knowing 



114 MYSTERIOUS MOVBMKNTS. 

what he was about. He had indeed found men more 
than a match for him in boldness at corrupting the Leg- 
islature and saw it could only be a battle of the lion and 
the skunk. He could succeed only by spending more 
money to corrupt men than Erie would be worth and he 
was now fully awake to the fact that he was dealing not 
with Drew but with much more daring spirits, who would 
hesitate at nothing to carry their point. Still, he released 
his hold at Albany only when he was assured that the ex- 
iles would make a satisfactory settlement with him in order 
to get back to their homes. Secret visits from across the 
river had made him certain of this, and suggestions and 
proposals for a settlement had been such that it was for 
the interest of both parties to hold up the stocks. The 
first rumors of this nature that reached the brokers were 
confirmed by the appearance of Drew and some of the 
other exiles on Wall Street the next day unmolested by 
Barnard's sheriffs. April 25th arrangements for a settle- 
ment had proceeded so far that " Fort Taylor " was 
abandoned and the exiles returned to their homes in 
peace. The terms of this settlement were not made 
known for some time, and then it proved to be quite in 
keeping with the arrangement made by the same parties 
six months before on the eve of election. The directors 
took 50,000 shares of Erie stock off Vanderbilt's shoul- 
ders at 70, for which he received $2,500,000 in cash, 
$1,250,000 in Boston Hartford & Erie bonds at 80. 
He was also paid $1,000,000 cash for the "option " given 



THE SETTLEMENT. 



115 



the directors of calling on him for 50,000 shares more of 
Erie at 70 any time within four months. And he was 
to name two new directors to be taken into the Erie 
board. This satisfied him, and for this he promised to 
have all the suits discontinued and let the fugitives 
return. The suits had all been brought, not in Vander- 
bilt's name, but in the names of men under his command, 
and to satisfy these men and the expenses of litigation, 
$429,250 ca§h was necessary. Mr. Eldridge received 
$4,000,000 of Erie acceptances for $5,000,000 of Boston, 
Hartford & Erie bonds at 80 and that satisfied him and 
his party. Mr. Drew was to retain all the money he had 
made by his numerous manipulations of Erie for the last 
two years, but was to pay into the Erie treasury $540,000 
for a receipt in full for all claims the corporation might 
have against him and as a settlement of all their mutual 
accounts. This satisfied him. Eisk and Gould had not 
come in for any of the pecuniary spoil in this settlement 
and they opposed it strenuously till they found a majority 
in favor of it, so it was sure to pass in spite of them ; and 
they were then induced to give their assent for the 
consideration that Eldridge, Drew and some others 
should resign their positions as directors and leave Fisk 
and Gould in full and sole possession of the Erie Rail- 
way. 

Six months after this settlement a suit was commenced 
against Vanderbilt by Eisk and Gould in behalf of the 
Erie Railway to recover the money paid Vanderbilt at 



116 ON THE WITNESS STAND. 

this settlement and make him take back the 50,000 
shares of Erie stock, on the ground that the transaction 
was illegal. The testimony given by Mr. Fisk when on 
the stand as a witness in this case, is so unique in charac- 
ter and affords such a perfect picture of the man that 
.some extracts from it are worth preserving and may form 
an acceptable close of this chapter. The suit was brought 
and conducted by Mr. David Dudley Field and has part- 
ners, his son and Thomas Gk Shearman. The trial was 
held by Judge George Gr. Barnard, and the court room 
was crowded with distinguished lawyers and men who 
listened with the greatest interest. When Mr. Fisk was 
called he stepped upon the stand with most perfect self- 
assurance, evidently enjoying the situation, and in answer 
to questions testified : 

I remember an interview with Commodore Vanderbilt 
in the summer of 1868. I don't remember just when the 
first interview was. It was after I returned from Jersey. 
I was absent in Jersey for a lapse of time (laughter) and 
on my return I made the Commodore a call (laughter). 
He said several of the directors were trying to make a 
trade with him and he would like to know who was the 
best man to trade with. I told him if the trade was a 
good one he had better trade with me (laughter). He 
said old man Drew was no better than a batter pudding 
(great laughter), Eldridge was completely demoralized 
and there was no head or tail to our concern (laughter). 
I said I thought so, too (great laughter). He said he 



ON THE WITNESS STAND. 



117 



had got his bloodhounds on us and would pursue us till 
we took his stock off his hands — he'd be d — d if he'd 
keep it. I said I'd be d — d if we'd take it back (sensa- 
tion), that we would sell him stock as long as he'd stand 
up and take it (great laughter). Upon this he mellowed 
down (laughter) and said we must get together and 
arrange this matter. He said when we were in Jersey- 
Drew used to slip over and see him whenever he could 
get out from under our eyes ; that he had had a good 
deal of talk with him and wanted to know if a trade made 
with Drew and Eldridge could be slipped through our 
board, saying that if it could we should all be landed 
in the haven of peace and harmony. (Looking very 
determined.) I told him I would not submit to a rob- 
bery of the road under any circumstances and that I 
was dumbfounded that our directors — whom I had sup- 
posed respectable men — (great laughter) would have any- 
thing to do with such proceedings. 

Cotmsel : Is that all that was said ? 

Mr. Fisk: I presume not. We had half an hour's 
conversation and I think I could say more than that in 
half an hour (laughter). 

Counsel: Can you give anything more that was said ? 

Mr. Fisk: I don't remember what more was said. I 
remember the Commodore put on his other shoe (laugh- 
ter). I remember that shoe on account of the buckle 
(laughter). You see, there were four buckles on that shoe. 
I hadn't ever seen any of that kind before, and I remem- 



118 ON THE WITNESS STAND. 

ber it passed through my mind that if such men wore 
that kind of shoe I must get me a pair (great laughter). 
This passed through my mind but I didn't speak of it to 
the Commodore. I was very civil to him (laughter). 

Counsel: Where was Gould all this time ? 

Mr. Fisk : He was in the front room — I suppose. I 
left him there and found him there, but I don't know 
where he may have been in the meantime (laughter). 
The next interview was at the house of Mr. Pierrepoint. 
Gould and T had an appointment with Eldridge at the 
Fifth Avenue Hotel and as we did not find him there we 
went out to see if we could find him. 

Counsel: Can you give the date of that meeting? — 
A. No, sir. 

Q. Can you give the week? — A. No, sir. 

Q. Can you give the month? — A. No, sir. 

Q. Can you give the year? — A. No, sir ! Not without 
reference. 

Q. What reference do you want? — A. Well, I shall 
have to refer back to the various events of my life to see 
just where that day comes in, and the almighty robbery 
committed by this man Vanderbilt against the Erie 
Railway was the most impressive event in my life 
(laughter). The meeting at Pierrepoint' s was a week or 
ten days after the first interview with Vanderbilt. Gould 
and I went there about nine o'clock. We stepped into 
the hall together. We asked if Mr. Pierrepoint was in. 
The servant said he would see. When the servant went 



ON THE WITNESS STAND. 119 

into the drawing room I was very careful to keep on a 
line with the door so I could see in (laughter). Presently 
Mr. Pierrepoint stepped into a the hall, resembling a man 
who wasn't in much (laughter). 1 asked him if our 
president was there. After some thoughtfulness on his 
part, he said he thought he was (laughter). During this 
time I had moved along towards the drawing room 
door, Mr. Pierrepoint having neglected to invite us in 
(laughter). 

Q. Where was Grould? — A. 0, he was just behind me; 
he's always right behind at such times (laughter), and 
while he entertained Pierrepoint I opened the door and 
stepped in (laughter), and found most of our directors 
there. I stepped up to Mr. Eldridge and told him we 
had been to the Pifth Avenue Hotel and did not find him. 
He said he knew he was not there (laughter). I asked 
what was going on and everybody seemed to wait for 
some one else to answer (laughter). Being better 
acquainted with Drew than any of the rest of them, 
though perhaps having less confidence in him (laughter), 
I asked him what under heavens was up. He said they 
were arranging the suits. I told him they ought to adopt 
a very different manner of doing it than being there in 
the night — that no settlement could be made without 
requiring the money of the corporation. He begun to 
picture his miseries to me, told me how he had suffered 
during his pilgrimage, saying he was worn and thrown 
away from his family and wanted to settle matters up ; 



120 ON THE WITNESS STAND. 

that he had done everything he could and saw no other 
way out either for himself or the company. I told him I 
guessed he was more particular about himself than the 
company and he said, well, he was (laughter) ; that he 
was an old man and wanted to get out of the fight and 
his troubles ; that they were much older in such affairs 
than we were — I was very glad to hear him say that — 
(laughter) and that it was no uncommon thing for great 
corporations to make arrangements of this sort. I told 
him if that was the case I thought our State Prison 
ought to be enlarged (laughter). Then Eldridge, he took 
hold of me. He talked about his great exertions, what 
he had done and consummated, that there were only two 
dissenting voices in the board — Gould and myself — and 
that if we came into the matter to-morrow the company 
would be free and clear of litigation and everything 
would be all right, as he had got the Commodore and 
Work and Schell to settle on a price. I told him I 
couldn't see it; I had fought that position for seven 
months night and day and for seven weeks in Jersey I 
had hardly taken off my clothes, fighting to keep the 
money of the company from being robbed ; and I could 
see no reason why we should not fight it on still. He 
said he didn't want to go into it, but had tried to do the 
best he could with Gould and myself and could do 
nothing and now an arrangement had been made with 
Vanderbilt and it was all right and must go through that 
night. I said I did not believe it was legal ; these 



ON THE WITNESS STAND. 121 

lawyers were all on one side, and I wanted to see my 
lawyer. He said that was no good (laughter). Then 
Mr. Pierrepoint argued with me. He said he did not 
think there was any one present who was not going to 
derive benefit from it. Rapallo was writing at a table. 
Schell was buzzing around (laughter) interested in get- 
ting his share of the plunder. Work was sitting on a 
sofa. I had nothing to say to him (laughter) as we were 
not on very good terms. Gould and I had a conversa- 
tion together and not till twelve o'clock at night did we 
give our consent. I told him I did not believe the 
proceedings were legal, that we had no lawyers, that the 
lawyers there were sold to Eldridge — hook, fine, and 
sinker (laughter). Gould said Eldridge had paid Evarts 
$10,000 for an opinion that it was all right and Eaton 
had been paid $15,000 for an opinion and said it was 
legal. I told him I thought it a queer way of classify- 
ing opinions (laughter). Gould consented first. He said 
he had made up his mind to do so as the best way to get 
out of the matter. I told him I would consent if he did. 
Drew came to me with tears in his eyes and asked me to 
consent and I consented. Then there was some paper 
drawn up and passed around for us to sign. I don't 
know what it contained. I didn't read it. I don't think 
I noticed a word of it. I don't know the contents and 
have always been glad I didn't (laughter). I have 
thought of it a thousand times. I don't know what other 
documents I signed — signed everything that was put 



122 ON THE WITNESS STAND. 

before me (laughter). After the devil once got hold of 
me I kept on signing (laughter). Didn't read any of 
them and have no idea what they were. Don't know 
how many I signed — kept no account after the first. I 
went with the robbers then and have been with them ever 
since (laughter). After signing all the papers I took my 
hat and left at once in disgust (laughter). I dont know 
whether we sat down or not. I know we didn't have 
anything to eat (laughter). 

Counsel: Didn't you have a glass of wine or something 
of that sort ? 

Mr. Fisk: I don't remember. 

Counsel: Wouldn't that have made an impression upon 
you ? (Laughter.) 

Mr. Fisk : No, sir ! I never drink (laughter). I 
think I left at once as soon as I had done signing. As 
we went out I said to Grould we had sold our souls to the 
devil (laughter). He agreed to that and said he thought 
so, too (laughter). I remember Mr. White, the cashier, 
coming in with the check book under his arm and as he 
came in I said to him that he was bearing in the balance 
of the remains of our corporation to put into Vanderbilt's 
tomb (laughter). 

The next interview with Vanderbilt was several days 
after. 

( 'ounst I : Was Gould with you ? 

Mr. Fisk : Yes, Sir ! We never parted during that 
war (laughter). We went to his office one morning and 



ON THE WITNESS STAND, 123 

found his man Friday in the front room (laughter). 
Don't know his name. It was the same man I had seen a 
hundred times before when I had been there with Drew. 
We found the Commodore in the back room. I asked 
him how he was getting on. He said " First rate " 
(laughter) ; that he had got the thing all arranged and the 
only question now was whether it could be slipped 
through our board. I told him that after what I had 
seen the other night I thought anything could be slipped 
through (laughter). He said we would have to manage 
it carefully. I told hini I didn't think so — that they 
would be careful to go it blind (laughter). He said the 
trade had been consummated at Pierrepoint's house. I 
said I had no doubt of it. He said it ought not to have 
been carried out ; that Schell had got the lion's share and 
some of the lawyers on the other side might have to go 
hungry (laughter). He asked if we were conversant 
with the rest of the trade. I said I had no doubt the 
whole thing had been cooked up in such a manner that it 
could be put through. He spoke about putting Banker 
and Stewart into our board and said it would help both 
him and us carry our stock, as people would say we had 
amalgamated, and Vanderbilt's men coming into the Erie 
board would strengthen the market. That was admitted, 
but it worked rather different from what we expected 
(laughter). I next saw him a day or two before the 
prosecution was closed up. (xould thought the Commo- 
dore's losses had not been so large as represented and 



124 ON THE WITNESS STAND. 

asked to see his broker's account. The Commodore said 
he never showed anything and we must take his word. He 
reiterated his losses and said they were so large because 
when they had got him to give his order to sustain the 
market the skunks had run and sold out on him (laugh- 
ter). As we were coming away he said, " Boys, you 
are young, and if you carry out this settlement there 
will be peace and harmony between the roads." 

Previous to commencing this suit 1 made a tender of 
50,000 shares of Erie, stock to Vanderbilt. I went up to 
his house in company with T. G. Shearman. I received 
the certificates of shares from Gould and put them in a 
black satchel (laughter). It was a bad, stormy day, so 
we got into a carriage and I held the satchel tight be- 
tween my legs (laughter) knowing they were valuable 
(laughter). I told Shearman not much reliance could be 
placed on him if we were attacked, he was such a little 
fellow (laughter, in which Mr. Shearman joined). We 
concurred in the opinion that it was dangerous property 
to travel with — (laughter) — might blow up (laughter). 
We rang the bell and went in. The gentleman came down 
and I said " Good morning, Commodore. I have come 
to tender you fifty thousand shares of Erie stock and 
demand back the securities and money." He said he 
had had no transactions with the Erie Railway Co. 
(laughter) and would have to consult his counsel. I told 
him I also demanded a milhon of dollars paid him for 
losses he purported to have sustained. He said he had 



ON THE WITNESS STAND. 125 

nothing to do with it (laughter) and I bade him good 
morning (laughter). 

I became director in the Erie Railway on the 13th of 
October, 1867. 

Counsel: You remember that date ? 

Mr. Fisk : I do, well ! It forms an episode in my 
life. 

Counsel : What fixes it in your mind so well ? 

Mr. Fisk: I had no gray hairs then. 

Counsel : You have gray hairs now ? 

Mr. Fisk: Plenty of them. And I saw more robbery 
during the next year than I had ever dreamed of as 
possible. 

Counsel : You saw it, did you ? 

Mr. Fisk: I didn't see it, but I knew it was going on. 
I am now a director of the Erie Railway and its comp- 
troller. My duty as comptroller is to audit all the bills ; 
as director, to manage the affairs of the corporation — 
honestly (laughter). 

I would like to make an apology to the Court. This is 
the first time I've been on the stand and I may overstep 
some of the rules (laughter). If I do, it is wholly in ig- 
norance. It is new business to me and if I don't keep 
within the rules I ask my counsel to guide me, for I don't 
know when I may be imposed on (laughter). 

Counsel : Your lawyer will look out for you. 

Mr. Fisk: Oh, I'll look out for myself (laughter). 
Don't give yourself any trouble about that. 



126 ON THE WITNESS STAND. 

Counsel: You seem to be a very frank and outspoken 
witness (laughter). 

Mr. Fisk : Well, I'm not much accustomed to you 
fellows (laughter). I was never on the stand but once 
before. 

Counsel : When was that ? 

Mr. Fisk : That was when I was a boy, up in the coun- 
try — in a cow case (great laughter). 



CHAPTER VII. 

IN PULL POSSESSION DISPOSING OF AN ELEPHANT MILLIONS 

MORE OF NEW STOCK A " LOCK UP " DREw's LAST BAT- 
TLE—RUMORED FLIGHT FROM THE COUNTRY THE ERIE 

CLASSIFICATION BILL ERIE STRICKEN FROM THE LIST OF 

THE STOCK EXCHANGE. 

Though the settlement of all the difficulties of the 
Vanderbilt-Erie war and the conclusion of peace was 
arrived at the last of April or early in May, it was not 
officially announced to the board of Erie directors till 
July 30th. On that day the president made the terms 
known to the board and after their adoption Mr. Eldridge 
resigned and retired to Massachusetts to devote his 
energies to the Boston, Hartford & Erie, which, after 
causing about as much scandal in the Massachusetts 
Legislature as Erie had done at Albany and swallowing 
several millions of the State funds, became bankrupt. 
Mr. Drew also retired from the board with several others, 
leaving Messrs. Eisk and Gould in undisputed sway. 
To most men the Erie Railway at the time these gentle- 
men came into full possessisn would have seemed no very 



128 DISPOSING OF AN ELEPHANT. 

goodly heritage. It had the appearance of a thoroughly 
sucked orange. But the new masters still saw signs of 
juice and felt it no mean windfall notwithstanding that its 
treasury had just been depleted of $9,000,000, that its 
affairs were in a very unfavorable condition and that the 
worst odor attached to its name. They addressed them- 
selves earnestly to the difficult task of bringing order out 
chaos, infusing new life into the road and rescuing it 
from threatened bankruptcy. They took Win. M. Tweed 
and Peter B. Sweeney into their board to fill the vacan- 
cies and with this accession of the masters of New York 
City and the State Legislature, Tammany Hall and the 
Erie ring were fused in interests and have since continued 
to serve each other faithfully. Messrs. Fisk and Gould 
concentrated all the power in their own hands, Gould 
becoming president and treasurer and Fisk comptroller, 
and they with Tweed and Lane constituting the executive 
committee. The new power had what is often a great 
element of strength and gives great advantages — they had 
nothing to lose, and could act with the boldness which 
that circumstance warrants. 

The 50,000 shares of stock taken back from Vanderbilt 
was an elephant upon their hands. The disposition of 
this was the first thing to be attended to, and here they 
were eminently ingenious and successful. It was a 
season of the year when money was plenty and stocks 
naturally buoyant. Besides, for some inexplicable cause, 
English financiers commenced investing in Erie stock 




COMMODORE VANDERBILT. 



DISPOSING OF AN ELEPHANT. 129 

quite extensively about this time. The new board had 
purposely been made up in a way to create the impres- 
sion that Vanderbilt had great influence in it, that his 
reputation might sustain the price of the stock. He still 
held several millions worth of it and therefore did not 
wish it to fall just yet. In addition to all these in- 
fluences tending to keep the price up, the new masters 
resorted to a very shrewd piece of finessing for the same 
purpose. When operators are caught heavily short and 
feel confident the market will fall soon, instead of buying 
stock to meet contracts, they often borrow it of those who 
hold it, till they can buy at a lower price. The new 
direction now bethought themselves of making this cus- 
tom serve them a good turn. They sold moderate quan- 
tities of Erie stock daily, but, instead of delivering the 
stock they had in their possession, they borrowed of any 
who held it and completed their sales by delivering this 
borrowed stock. This naturally gave the impression that 
there was a large short interest existing in the stock, 
hence many became bulls in the hope of pinching the 
supposed shorts and this tended to send up the price. At 
the expiration of the time for which the stock had been 
borrowed, it was of course repaid out of shares that had 
been in the Erie treasury all the time. By this means 
and under these various influences, all the 50,000 shares 
were soon disposed of at about 70 without loss, and thus 
the feeble condition of the treasury soon felt the healthy 
stimulus of some $3,000,000. And finding that Erie went 



130 VANDERBILT WASHES HIS HANDS OF ERIE. 

go well, Fisk and Gould saw no good reason why all who- 
thirsted for it should not have their desire gratified, and 
therefore, profiting by their early instruction, they set the 
little mill going again and turned out stock in quantities 
to suit purchasers as long as they would take it. More- 
over, it was a season of the year when the road did a 
heavy business and brought in a great deal of ready 
money. From all these sources the treasury was soon in 
a quite flourishing condition and the part that had fallen 
to Messrs. Fisk and Gould in the settlement proved to be 
something not so much like a sucked orange as at first 
appeared. 

But Vanderbilt had not neglected an opportunity he saw 
when Erie was going readily at 70. By the settlement, 
he was under contract to deliver the directors 50,000 
shares at 70 any time before the end of August, and 
they hoped he would not dare sell the stock he held for 
fear they would then run the price up and corner him. 
They also suspected he would make another attempt 
to control the election in October and would there- 
fore continue to hold large quantities of stock for that 
purpose. Should he pursue this course they knew the 
market would remain buoyant till they got it so flooded 
with new stock that it would tumble at great strides 
afl at once and Vanderbilt would again bleed freely for 
their benefit. But the Commodore was too wary to be 
caught in such a trap. He knew the men he had to deal 
with now. He soon became aware that they were put- 



TRANSFER BOOKS. 181 

ting upon the market all the stock they had taken back 
from him and knew they would manufacture a new 
supply for themselves if the price kept up. He knew 
they could not manipulate a corner on him with such a 
vast volume of the stock afloat, and he felt under no 
special obligation to sustain the market at 70 while his 
young friends amused themselves grinding out large ' 
quantities of new stock. He therefore availed himself of 
the demand for Erie at 70 to dispose quietly of the large 
amount of that valuable property still held by him and 
rid himself of all connection with it and the unscrupulous 
men now in control. The influence of these combined 
heavy sales soon began to be felt. Early in August Erie 
suddenly commenced to fall rapidly, and on the 19th 
went at 49. On that day the stockholders and public 
were taken by surprise by the announcement that the 
transfer books were closed to get ready for the election, 
which was not to occur till the 13th of October. 

When stock is issued, the names of the parties to whom 
it is issued and their respective amounts, are entered in 
the stock register of the company. The entries thus made 
on their books are the sole evidence to the company as to 
who are owners of the stock, and from these entries is 
made up the list of those entitled to vote at elections. If 
any subsequent purchaser of the stock wishes to vote he 
must go to the office of the company and have the shares 
held by him transferred from the name of the man to 
whom they were issued, or to whose credit they now stand, 



]32 ABOVE THE LAW. 

to his own, else his name will not appear on the voting- 
list made up from the books and some other man will have 
the right of voting on his stock. It is customary to close 
these transfer books — i. e., suspend the privilege of having 
stock transferred from one name to another — after notice, 
a few days before an election, to give time to make out 
the voting list from them. Fisk and Gould had now sus- 
pended this right nearly two months before the election. 
The object was obvious. The 50,000 shares taken from 
Vanderbilt and all the new stock they had since issued 
now stood on the books in their own names or those of 
men in league with them, and by thus preventing their 
transfer they would be able to vote at the election upon 
vast amounts of stock owned by other people and so 
easily compass their own reelection. Of course the pro- 
ceeding was daringly illegal, and in any community where 
law has any force and a judge dare not openly be a 
scoundrel, they might have been compelled to make trans- 
fers till a reasonable time before election ; but with recent 
experience as to the lengths these men were ready to go, 
and with Judge Barnard, who had driven them out of the 
State and made a great show of virtue by denouncing 
them in unsparing terms in March, now in closest friend- 
ship with them, no one cared to make the useless attempt. 
It had now got to the pass that these men openly defied 
the law, and it could not be enforced against them. How 
futile any such attempt would have been was proven two 
years later when, under similar circumstances, some Eng- 



COUNSEL TREATED WITH RIDICULE. 133 

iish owners of 60,000 shares of the stock attempted to 
have it transferred to their names so they might vote on 
it at the approaching election. A motion for this pur- 
pose having been made, of course it was managed to have 
it come up before Judge Barnard and he coolly put it 
down for hearing at a day subsequent to the election! 
Application was then made to Judge Cardozo to remedy the 
outrage, but in vain. The counsel of the English stock- 
holders was the Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, and all who are 
not familiar with the New York Courts would naturally 
think that a judge would be very slow to treat such a dis- 
tinguished lawyer with wanton indignity, and that if such 
an outrage were perpetrated upon his clients a man of his 
great name, abilities and influence would raise a storm of 
public and professional indignation that would sweep the 
infamous men from the bench ; but he was made the mere 
sport of the miserable ring-politician judges, driven back 
and forth like a shuttle-cock between Jew and Gentile, 
the rights of his clients were stolen from them, and all 
had to be submitted to, awakening no murmurs of sur- 
. prise or resentment. This trick enabled Messrs. Fisk and 
Gould to vote upon vast quantities of stock owned by 
other men, and by the purchase of a sufficient number of 
proxies to give them control of a majority of votes on 
election day, they easily reelected themselves, though 
they owned little or none of the stock — the stock of the 
men most anxious to turn them out having thus been made 
to secure their continuance in power. 



134 A tOCK UP. 

Their reelection having thus been made sure two 
months beforehand, they of course cared nothing more 
about the stock. However low it fell they would lose 
nothing as they owned none of it, so they not only con- 
tinued to issue new stock and load it upon the market, 
but also deliberately entered upon a bear campaign to 
depress the price not only of Erie but of the whole list of 
stocks. The means adopted to accomplish this purpose 
was what is called a "lock up " of currency. 

In the early autumn a large amount of currency is 
drawn from New York to the west and south to move the 
crops of the year. This makes money very scarce at the 
financial centre and in such demand that high rates of 
interest prevail and the whole stock market is depressed. 
The monetary stringency thus naturally produced was 
further increased this season by the fact that Mr. Mc- 
Culloch, Secretary of the Treasury at that time, favored 
the policy of contracting the volume of currency as a 
means of getting back to specie payment. A combination 
was formed by the Erie ring to take advantage of this 
state of circumstances. They had control of some four-* 
teen millions of money, Daniel Drew engaging to supply 
four millions to the pool. The first step was to sell 
heavily short of all the leading stocks ; then they sud- 
denly withdrew from circulation all the money controlled 
by them, producing a critical stringency in money and a 
great fall in stocks, when they covered their short 
contracts at immense profits and the plot was an entire 



BREW DESERTS. 135 

success. As soon as this scheme was well under way and 
stocks had fallen considerably and money readily com- 
manded extortionate rates of interest, the timorous Drew 
became alarmed at the dizzy heights to which the young 
eagles were bent on soaring with him and looked 
anxiously about for a safe escape. Stocks had already 
fallen so that a handsome harvest could be gathered, and 
he was fain to be satisfied with this while his confederates 
had their hearts fixed on something much more grand. 
Among those who had already been forced into a very 
critical situation by the fall in stocks and the scarcity of 
money was Henry Keep, a former associate of Drew. 
He was now in the most pressing need of two millions of 
dollars to sustain himself and was willing to grant the 
most profitable terms to secure it, as he would fail and be 
•ruined unless it was forthcoming. Faithful to his nature 
to do the best he can for himself always, regardless of 
associates, friends, and promises, Drew seized this fine 
opportunity of covering a safe retreat, loaned Keep the 
two millions, and withdrew his funds from the lock up. 
Fisk and Gould, however, continued to turn the screws 
and wring their victims without mercy, regarding the 
writhing and agony as rare sport and amusement. 

The practices of the New York banks are such that a 
clique in command of such a large sum of money can 
often place Wall Street entirely at their mercy. The two 
customs of certifying checks and loaning money on spec- 
ulative stocks are vulnerable points that may put the 



186 CKBTIFIED CHECKS. 

banks and all monetary interests in the power of such a 
band of conspirators. A check is " certified " by the 
cashier of the bank on which it is drawn writing " Good " 
across it and signing his name. Properly this means that 
the maker of the check has funds on deposit to meet it, 
and the certification is the same as the endorsement of a 
note, making the bank responsible, it being the cashier's 
duty to refuse to cash uncertified checks when the maker 
has in the bank only money enough to meet the checks 
that have been certified. In fact, however, many of the 
New York banks often certify checks of depositors in 
good credit for much larger sums than the maker has on 
deposit with them ; in other words, the bank endorses the 
notes of its depositors. As certified checks pass as readily 
as money, a man may command twice as much capital as 
he is really worth. Banks also loan money and take 
stocks for collateral security. It is in times of greatest 
stringency of course that depositors are most apt to have 
checks certified for much larger sums than they have on 
deposit and that money is borrowed by speculators on 
stock held by them. The banks thus become indirectly 
parties to the speculations and when a crisis comes they 
suddenly find themselves responsible for certified checks 
in much larger sums than the makers of the checks have 
on deposit, and they are themselves pressed for funds to 
meet the certified checks, yet dare not call in the demand 
loans they have made on stocks, for if they should the 
stocks would have to be sold in a depressed or falling 



APPEALS TO WASHINGTON. 137 

market, thus increasing the depression and causing a 
financial crash. In this way the banks themselves are 
often drawn into a most critical position. 

None of these opportunities for helping on their pur- 
pose were neglected by Fisk and Gould during their lock 
up. They continued to issue new stock and locked up all 
the money it brought. Between the time of their coming 
into absolute power in July and the 24th of October, 
235,000 shares of new stock were secretly issued and put 
upon the market, increasing the capital stock from 
$34,265,300 to $57,766,300, or an increase of $23,501,000 
in about three months. The first week in November was 
a most trying and critical one. Money commanded 
extraordinary rates of daily interest, all stocks were 
falling, several of the banks were greatly embarrassed, 
many firms were failing and a disastrous crash seemed 
imminent. Urgent appeals went from Wall Street to 
Washington for the Secretary of the Treasury to relieve 
the situation by re-issuing some of the currency that had 
been withdrawn from circulation • under his policy of 
contraction, but he regarded it as a mere contest between 
speculators, in no wise affecting the business interests of 
the country and so refused to interfere or swerve from his 
course of contraction. Calumny even represented him as 
interested with the "lock up" clique, -and of course the 
leading spirits eagerly encouraged this impression. Fisk 
and Gould now feeling Wall Street securely in their 
clutches gave the screws another remorseless turn. 



138 THE LOCK UP BROKEN. 

Another fall in stocks followed, Erie going to 35, a fall of 
just 50 per cent, since the new management obtained 
control, and N. Y. Central fell to 114, or 23 per cent. 
since the commencement of the " lock up," a fall that told 
the making and losing of many a large fortune. Other 
stocks fell in like manner ; more firms failed, the condi- 
tion of the banks became more critical and renewed 
appeals were made to Secretary McOulloch and he was 
assured that unless relief was afforded there must result a 
financial crash that would involve not only New York 
but the business interests of the whole country. At 
length, finding the situation so serious, on Saturday 
morning, Nov. 7th, he telegraphed to New York that 
he would re-issue $50,000 of currency to relieve the 
situation if necessary. This gave assurance that the 
power of the clique was broken and so relieved appre- 
hension, but as the currency was not issued the stock 
market did not react but dragged on through another 
week of depression. The combination taking the news 
from Washington as their warning, improved this week 
to cover all their shorts and prepare a new scheme. Of 
course stocks would react suddenly when the stringency 
was removed, so, after covering their shorts, they bought 
heavily and went long in all the leading stocks, prepa- 
ratory to reaping another harvest from the coming rise. 
And now was discovered an opportunity for gratifying a 
little revenge. 

When Drew deserted the " lock up," knowing that the 



REVENGE ON DREW. 



139 



design of the managers was to depress the price of Erie 
and being aware of the large secret issue of new stock, he 
sold heavily short of Erie and waited for the fall. Fisk 
and Gould found out that he was short and resolved to 
make use of that circumstance not only to transfer large 
sums of money from his pockets to their own but also 
to wreak vengeance upon him for turning traitor to them 
in the "lock up" plot. Accordingly, while they made use 
of the week following the news from Washington to cover 
their own shorts most advantageously, they managed to 
keep Erie declining slightly so that Drew failed to cover 
his shorts. On Saturday, the 14th, all their plans being 
ripe, Erie sold for 35 during the regular business hour, 
but in the afternoon the managers of the "lock up" 
unlock their twelve millions of currency, and put it in 
circulation suddenly, making money very plenty and easy 
and under their new combination for a rise Erie quickly 
. shot from 35 to 47 — a rise of 12 per cent, in an hour or 
two. Drew was immediately filled with alarm and 
realized that he was caught in a trap. Great excitement 
prevailed late in the afternoon and through the evening, 
for it was now evident that new developments of an 
important character were at hand. The course of things 
for the last three months and the fall of 50 per cent, in 
Erie had dispelled the delusion which had led to such 
large foreign investments in that stock in July and 
August, and it was now discovered that New York agents 
of the foreign purchasers had been selling the stock and 



140 A " BULL " CAMPAIGN. 

it was expected that large amounts of it would arrive 
from England by the steamer due on Monday, the 23d. 
Those who had thus sold for their foreign customers 
when the stock was depressed now naturally desired with 
Drew that the price should not be suddenly run up again 
for speculative purposes. A consultation was held by the 
agents of the foreign stockholders and their sympathizers, 
and it was decided to resort to the Courts once more for 
protection. Accordingly Saturday night was employed 
by Drew in making the necessary affidavits, stating the 
course of the Erie managers in issuing new stock, for spec- 
ulative purposes in violation of statutes, etc. These affi- 
davits were to be used on Monday to procure the 
removal of Fisk and Gould from control of the Erie 
Railway and the appointment of a receiver to take 
charge of its affairs. Mr. August Belmont being the 
most prominent agent of the foreign stockholders and a 
gentleman of high standing and great influence, the suit 
was to be brought in his name. But Drew, true to his 
nature of pursuing no course vigorously more than a few 
hours at the most in a critical situation, and naturally 
having no very strong confidence in the efficacy of the 
Courts to relieve him in his present exigency, had no 
sooner sworn to the affidavits than he was ready to betray 
either party or both provided he could only get himself 
out of the difficulty. Accordingly after spending Satur- 
day night in conference with those united with him to 
oppose Fisk and Gould, and in making affidavits to be 



JANUS-FACED DANIEL. 141 

used by Mr. Belmont in legal proceedings against those 
gentlemen on Monday morning, lie made it his first 
business on Sunday to call on Fisk and endeavor to 
secure pardon and relief for himself by disclosing the 
situation and betraying the designs of his friends in 
council the previous night. He made 'a perfect confidant 
of his whilom protege and pupil, revealing to him without 
reserve all the details and dangers of the position in 
which his victims were placed by the sudden rise, telling 
nim of the legal proceedings that would be instituted 
against him on the morrow, and then, in return for all 
this confidence, frankness and treachery, meekly re- 
quested that some small hole be opened through which 
he himself might escape. Fisk listened attentively till 
he had drawn from his informant full knowledge of every 
detail of the circumstances and designs of his opponents 
and then to the request with which the narrative ended 
he returned a sardonic laugh and said, " Ah ! ha ! old 
fellow, I've got you just where I want you now ! By this 
revelation of the situation you are all placed wholly in 
my power. You're in and you can't get out, bellow as 
much as you may !" 

The " old man eloquent " in tears plead and besought 
to be relieved and expressed an entire willingness to 
retract the affidavits on which the suit was to be insti- 
tuted and help to harrass all the rest in every possible 
way if he were only assisted to provide for " them shorts" 
on easy terms. But Fisk was inexorable. He knew 



142 DREW O.N HIS KNEES. 

how much a promise of Drew's was worth, he knew that 
Drew could now help him to nothing which he could not 
do better alone, he knew that Drew was his choicest 
piece of game, the man from whom most money could be 
wrung in the present situation, and he prized as do few 
men, fortunately, the fine opportunity of gratifying re- 
venge. He therefore turned a deaf ear to all the mourn- 
ful entreaties, told Drew he was "the last man that ought 
to whine over any position he placed himself in with 
regard to Erie," and finally got so impatient of the 
continued appeals that he informed him he could listen to 
him no longer. After hours of self-humiliation and 
abject cringing, the wily veteran of two-and-seventy years 
suddenly composed his countenance as a child dries its 
tears on finding they are useless, and, acting upon Fisk's 
polite request to leave, heaping coals of fire on his 
enemy's head with an urbanity that Chesterfield might 
have envied, though it must have fallen much like a pun 
at a funeral, he mildly said " I'll bid you good evening " 
and bowed himself out. 

The situation now called for immediate action on the 
part of Fisk and Gould and not a moment was to be lost. 
As soon as Drew had retired Fisk summoned a council of 
his confederates to listen to the information he had gained 
and decide upon the course to pursue. The tactics 
speedily adopted stamped them as men of no common 
mould and as possessed of no common power. It was 
decided to forestall the coming Belmont suit by commenc- 



BARNARD CONVERTED. 143 

lug a suit first. Affidavits were at once made alleging 
that certain parties were conspiring to injure the Erie 
Railway by interfering with the directors, that there was 
danger of injunctions that would be of great injury to the 
interests of the road, the stockholders and the public, etc., 
etc., and therefore the appointment of a receiver to take 
charge of the road was prayed for. And now to whom 
should they go to get this legal farce and bare-faced fraud 
carried out ? What judge, in the fight of this nineteenth 
century and in this land of boasted liberty and law, would 
disgrace the bench by performing such a monstrous 
parody on the very name of law ? Who would dream of 
their going to the very judge whom they had declared 
corrupt in a former affidavit, who had chased them out of 
the State only eight months before, taken the lead in de- 
nouncing them as villains, and pronounced the bill they 
had bribed through the Legislature to be "a bill legaliz- 
ing counterfeit money?" Yet this was what they did. 
George Gr. Barnard was the judge selected to authorize 
this fraud. Nor did they wait for him to appear in his 
Court. They surprised him on Monday morning before 
his toilet was completed, and such was the strange trans- 
formation that had come over the mental, moral and 
legal nature of this man since the spring months that he 
extended a cordial greeting to these men he then so 
vehemently anathematized, and soon the outrage was legal- 
ized by the same signature that was attached to the writs 
which had driven the suitors into exile on the 11th of the 



144 COURT SESSION EXTRAORDINARY. 

preceding March. This infamous step taken, the details 
were in perfect keeping. The request for a receiver 
having been granted, who was a proper person for such a 
responsible trust? The man whom this upright judge 
deemed it most appropriate to appoint was none other than 
Jay Gould ! And as the receiver of such a responsible 
trust must give heavy and most undoubted bonds, who 
would be his bondsman ? The one bondsman in every 
way satisfactory to the distinguished Court was James 
Fisk, Jr. ! With this monstrous proceeding thus sanc- 
tioned by the Supreme Court, the surprise party withdrew 
and left Judge Barnard to complete his toilet at leisure. 

When the Courts opened at ten o'clock, Mr. Belmont's 
lawyers appeared before Judge Sutherland and com- 
menced proceedings in the regular way, obtaining an 
injunction and getting Mr. Davies, an ex-judge of the- 
Court of Appeals, appointed receiver. When they had 
been through with all their trouble and felt themselves 
now secure, the Drew-Belmont party were somewhat sur- 
prised to learn that "the regular way " was altogether too 
slow a coach to travel by if they would head off Messrs. 
Fisk and Gould and were astonished not a little to find 
that a receiver had already been appointed in the interest 
of Messrs. Fisk and Gould while Judge Sutherland was 
still enjoying his last slumbers in the morning, and that 
that receiver was Jay Gould, with James Fisk, Jr., for 
bondsman. Under the influence of this news in Wall 



moke or Barnard's equity. 145 

Street that day, Erie fluctuated wildly from 50 up to 61 
and then back to 48. It seemed as though the utmost 
length of iniquity to which a judge would dare go had 
been reached by Judge Barnard in this day's proceedings, 
but on Wednesday morning he followed it up by an order 
which made the one of Monday, black as it was, seem 
"pure as the driven snow." Eisk and Gould wanted to 
use the funds of the Erie treasury in manipulating their 
" corner," but there is a statute expressly forbidding any 
railroad to speculate in its own stock and they felt it 
worth while to clothe their steps with some small show 
of legality. To compass their purpose, affidavits were 
made stating that some doubts existed as to the legality 
of a recent issue of two or three hundred thousand shares 
of stock, wherefore Mr. Receiver Gould petitioned the 
Court for instruction and authority to use the funds of the 
Erie treasury to buy back this stock of doubtful legality 
at any price less than par, that it might be cancelled. In 
other words, Jay Gould, as president of the Erie Eailway, 
had issued two or three hundred thousand shares of stock, 
in direct violation of a statute forbidding an increase of 
capital stock, and disposed of it at about 40 to depress the 
market and help on the "lock up," and after this course 
had sent the stock to 35, Jay Gould, as receiver, alleging 
the illegality of his act as president, now asked for author- 
ity in direct conflict with another statute forbidding any 
railroad to speculate in its own stock, to use the funds of 



146 DREW GIRDS UP HIS LOINS. 

the treasury to buy back at par this very stock recently 
sold by him at about 40. And this authority Judge 
Barnard promptly granted ! 

Drew had no time to ejaculate over the enormity of this 
order. Whatever its nature, he knew it meant "busi- 
ness " for him. He saw that there was now no possible 
escape for him and that he must face the music and buy 
Erie on the best terms he could to cover his shorts before 
a corner could be closed on him. Fisk and Gould, with 
the whole Erie treasury at their disposal by order of 
Judge Barnard, now also set to buying with all their 
might, determined to corner their early instructor. Drew 
was 70,000 shares short and the fight was a desperate 
one. He knew it meant a heavy loss to him, but a cor- 
ner meant a still heavier one, and he fought against it 
accordingly. The battle raged all day long on Wednesday 
and at night Erie stood at 57. Still the contest was not 
decided. Drew had not secured enough to cover his 
contracts, Fisk and Gould had not secured enough to 
perfect the corner. The next morning the battle was 
renewed, both parties knowing that the decisive hour 
would be past and victory decided before that day 
closed. The books of the company show pretty accurately 
where all the stock is — how much in Europe and how 
much in Wall Street, so Fisk and Gould could tell very 
nearly how much they had to control to secure their 
corner. On Thursday the battle raged with a fierceness 
and violence that quite eclipsed that on the 10th of March. 



AN EXCITING DAT IN WALL STREET. 147 

Collisions and blows were not infrequent in the excite- 
ment. As it approached two o'clock Erie stood at 62 and 
the scales seemed turning against Drew. So desperate 
was the struggle that there was a difference of 10 per cent, 
between stock delivered immediately and that to be de- 
livered at a quarter to three. As the strife was only for 
the corner, which must culminate that day, and it was 
certain the stock would fall again when the crisis was 
over, and especially after the steamer arrived on Monday 
bringing back from Europe a large amount of the stock, 
there was a difference of 16 per cent, between stock to be 
delivered that day and that to be delivered in three days. 
It is two o'clock and in fifteen minutes more the battle 
will be over. Eisk and Gould are now confident and 
Drew's heart is sinking as he feels himself fa lling into 
their pitiless clutches. The noise of conflict has extended 
much further than usual from Wall Street, and an un- 
wonted number of lookers-on have gathered around. 
Every man holding a share of the stock that has been so 
fickle deems this his most favorable time to sell and every 
available share is now thrown upon the market. Sud- 
denly large quantities of stock supposed to be in Europe 
make their appearance. This makes matters seem very 
dangerous for the side that has almost won. A hasty 
investigation shows that some hundred thousand shares 
issued in certificates of ten shares each, intended for circu- 
lation in Europe only, had been laid away by small 
purchasers in New York and were now being brought out. 



148 DREW'S LAST BATTLE. 

This is a damaging blow to Fisk and Gould and a heavy 
reinforcement of their opponent at the very turning point 
of the battle. However, there must be no wavering or 
the day is lost. The stock must be absorbed at all 
hazards and as but ten minutes more remain they throw 
themselves into the breech with all the vehemence and 
nerve for which Fisk is noted, undaunted by the un- 
toward event. They are gathering in the unexpected 
stock by the hundred shares per minute, when, their 
bank becomes suddenly alarmed at the amount of checks 
that flow in for certification to meet this last grand charge 
and refuse to certify their checks for any further sums, 
and dealers refuse to accept their checks unless certified. 
The blow is vexatious, but Fisk is still undaunted and 
rallies to the new emergency with the energy of a man 
borne on by the most determined will and desperation 
combined. Arrangements are instantly made to have 
their checks certified at another bank and they return for 
the last desperate charge that is to win the day. But five 
minutes have been lost in making the new arrangement 
for having their checks certified and they are the five last, 
decisive moments of the struggle. Drew improved them 
while his enemies were crippled. His shorts were covered 
and the corner was defeated. Erie dropped at once to 42. 
It had been a battle of giants in which both parties had 
suffered severely, each inflicting heavy and damaging 
blows upon the other and neither gaining a triumph. 
Drew had escaped the ruinous grip of a corner, but had 



DREW RETIRES. 149 

been forced to cover at about 58 his contracts for 70,000 
sbares of which he went short at about 38, and the day 
had cost him about a million and a half dollars. Fisk 
and Gould had gratified revenge upon Drew, but as they 
had bought enormous quantities of stock at the high 
prices and had failed to get their corner on Drew to re- 
lieve them of their burdens and the stock had now fallen 
on their hands, the revenge had cost them, or the Erie 
Eailway, heavily, and the day had probably more than 
cancelled all their profits from the preceding "lock up " 
and bear campaign. 

With this day's battle Daniel Drew retired from all 
active part in Wall Street affairs. A long career of con- 
stant strifes and battles closed with a severe and bitter 
blow, but it left him still possessed of millions. He saw 
the spirit of young America was getting far too strong for 
his aged nerves and retired to his native town to devote 
himself entirely to building and endowing Methodist 
churches, Methodist seminaries and attending Methodist 
prayer-meetings. He is seen ' ; on the street" no more 
except at rare intervals, when he comes down to look on 
with an expression of mute, child-like wonder on his 
countenance and his arms folded behind him as he watches 
how deftly his young pupils now stack the cards and throw 
the dice ; but to all invitations to take a hand in the game 
once more he mournfully shakes his head. 

Through the week following the culmination of the 
struggle between Drew and Fisk the utmost confusion 



150 KTTMORS OF ABSCONDING. 

prevailed in regard to Erie matters, several new suits 
being instituted on the one side and the other, opposing 
rece i vers contending for possession, and the wildest reports 
circulated as to the designs of Messrs. Fisk and Gould. For 
a day or two it was fully believed that they intended to 
abscond to Canada or Europe, taking with them all the 
funds of the Erie treasury. They barricaded themselves 
in the Erie offices and it was found impossible to get to 
them to serve upon them any papers in the suits that had 
been instituted. Officers were stationed around the build- 
ing and at all the ferries and depots to catch them in case 
they attempted to escape. After this situation had lasted 
for a week, late on Sunday night several of the party 
emerged from the office and started for the ferry. Fisk 
was immediately approached and served with some legal 
papers, whereupon he returned to the office to ascertain 
their nature. Knowing now that he was closely watched 
and that he might be served with numberless other legal 
documents and even be arrested if he made another open 
attempt to cross the ferry, he prepared himself as if for a 
masquerade. In this guise, with his identity concealed, 
he once more emerged from the office and approaching a- 
carriage that stood in waiting, instructed the driver, in a 
loud disguised voice, to drive to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and 
then entered the carriage. The driver drove rapidly up 
the street a few blocks and then in obedience to previous 
secret instructions disobeyed the loud direction given out 
as a blind, drove to the Courtlandt Street ferry, and by 



A SPECIAL TRAIN AT MIDNIGHT. 151 

this circuitous passage landed his precious freight safely 
in New Jersey. Some officers, suspecting such a move, 
had crossed over the ferry to the Erie depot in Jersey 
City. Here they found a director's car and an engine 
ready for a start, though they were informed no train was 
going out. Waiting to watch developments, they soon 
heard an unusual whistle up the road towards the Bergen 
tunnel. At sound of this the track-master feigned much 
excitement at the position of the director's car, told the 
engineer he had no business on that track and ordered 
him to start up and back down upon another track. The 
engineer started up but, instead of backing down as di- 
rected, kept increasing his speed and passed off up the 
road, leaving the officers standing alone. These circum- 
stances were put together and it was now considered as a 
certainty that Fisk and Gould had run away and carried 
all the money of the Erie Eailway with them, and an- 
nouncements to that effect were made in all the papers 
next morning. When Fisk got the morning papers from 
New York and read the news, he telegraphed back an 
indignant denial and his card was published in the same 
papers next morning. He declared he had only gone to 
Binghampton on matters connected with the business of 
the road, and such proved to be the fact. Mr. Fisk re- 
garded the articles published about him as gross libels and 
on returning to the city he immediately commenced suits 
for libel against all the leading papers, laying the damages 
in each case at $100,000. He, however, subsequently so 



152 LAW SUITS ON A GIGANTIC SCALE. 

far controlled his indignation as to think it not worth his 
while to bring any of these suits to trial. Everybody now 
seeming to feel satisfied that it was useless to attempt to do 
anything to bring the managing spirits to justice or rescue 
the property of the Erie stockholders from these men, and 
that there was no way but to let them run their course, a 
calm succeeded in Erie affairs, and all attacks and efforts 
ceased. This seemed to give Mr. Fisk the impression that 
he held the world in a sling and he now commenced legal 
proceedings against nearly everybody on a most magnifi- 
cent scale. December 10th he commenced a suit against 
Vanderbilt for $3,500,000, alleging that the settlement of 
July was illegal, and seeking to recover the money paid 
Vanderbilt on that occasion. A suit was commenced 
against Work and Schell on the same transaction in the 
sum of $429,250. August Belmont was sued for injuring 
the Erie Railway by commencing a suit against its direc- 
tors and the damages were placed at a million of dollars. 
An examination of the records of the Erie office showed 
that some years before when Drew was director he had 
bought certain steamboats of the company, used them in 
the company's business on Lake Erie, charged the com- 
pany for said service and finally resold the steamers to 
the company. This proceeding was alleged to be fraudu- 
lent from beginning to end, and a suit therefor was 
commenced against Drew for the sum of a million of 
dollars. It is impossible to predict how far similar pro- 
ceedings might have been kept up had not some other 



FISK AND VANDERBILT LOG ROLLING. 153 

business of a diverting nature required a little attention 
from Mr. Fisk and afforded him a new amusement. 

The Legislature was soon to meet at Albany and Messrs. 
Fisk and Gould naturally apprehended that trouble might 
come to them from that quarter and that investigating 
committees might be showered down upon them to in- 
quire into their conduct and the condition of the Erie 
Railway. Hostile legislation was expected in the matter 
of their enormous issue of new stock. But Vanderbilt 
had declared a stock dividend of 80 per cent, on the cap- 
ital of the N. Y. Central Dec. 19th, and this was an in- 
crease of capital or a watering of the stock about the 
legality of which there was some doubt also as well as 
about the Erie issue. Here was an excellent opportunity 
for log rolling. A bill legalizing Vanderbilt' s stock divi- 
dend was passed through the Legislature without any dif- 
ficulty and the affairs of Erie were permitted to rest in 
peace. But now Vanderbilt wanted to get through a bill 
to consolidate the Hudson Eiver and Central roads. Fisk 
and Grould, apprehending that their election from year to 
year would be a matter involving them in a severe contest 
and many unpleasant circumstances, wanted to avoid the 
necessity of an annual battle to prevent the stockholders 
from turning them out of office. They therefore had a 
bill prepared providing that after the next annual elec- 
tion the Erie directors should be classified so that only 
one fifth of them should be elected annually. They were 
to be divided into classes, the first to hold office for six 



154 THE ERIE CLASSIFICATION BILL. 

years, the second for five and so on, the last class holding 
for one year only, but all future elections to be for six 
years. Either this bill or Vanderbilt's consolidation bill 
would alone meet with a bitter opposition and require 
vast sums of money to put them in a favorable light be- 
fore the legislators. The Legislature was Republican, 
though the Governor was Democratic (a circumstance 
explained by the ingenious system of "repeating" in 
New York city), and the man engineering the Erie classi- 
fication bill was Wm. M. Tweed, "boss" of the Demo- 
crats and also himself an Erie director. The wishes of 
Vanderbilt and the Erie ring not being antagonistic, and 
knowing how much harm they could do each other by 
opposition, the two parties now joined in another little 
"pool," this time to operate not in stocks but in the votes 
of the worthy law-makers and guardians of the public 
weal in the great Empire State. They knew how many 
votes must be bought and what was their price under 
various circumstances. They could unite and carry both 
bills through for a much less sum than each would cost 
if the other opposed. Hence a truce was made to their 
enmities, the two bills went speedily through without 
difficulty and the same day the suit of Belmont (in which 
Vanderbilt was supposed to be influential) against the Erie 
Railway was discontinued. This classification bill, though 
its avowed purpose and immediate consequence were well 
known, and though there was no doubt but that it was 
bribed through the Legislature, received the signature of 



DRAWING LOTS. 155 

Governor John T. Hoffman. At the next annual election 
!Fisk and Gould carried everything their own way by arts 
similar to those practised the previous year, and then pro- 
ceeded to "draw lots " to determine who should have the 
long terms and who the short ones under the classification 
bill. Of course Fisk and Gould both drew the longest 
term, and thus by the act of a bribed Legislature and the 
signature of John T. Hoffman the Erie Railway was 
placed in the absolute control of James Eisk, Jr., and Jay 
Gould for six years beyond the reach of the wishes and 
voice of the stockholders. Of the directors chosen at this 
election, five were salaried clerks in the employ of Fisk 
and Gould and are of course their obedient tools, mere 
holders of places like so many wooden men, with no voice 
whatever in the management, thus giving these two men 
absolute control of a majority of the board of directors. 
Some six or seven of the other directors are men of much 
higher character, but they were merely put in as respect- 
able figure-heads, and have all signed a pledge to support 
Gould's policy or resign. And, in fact, even the formality 
of calling an occasional meeting of the board of directors 
was long ago dispensed with and everything is managed 
by the executive committee, Fisk, Gould, Lane and Tweed, 
without ever thinking of taking a vote of the others. 
Indeed Messrs. Fisk and Gould have probably forgotten 
that there is such a thing as a board of directors of the 
Erie Railway, and practically there is none. In this 
manner have things gone on now for three years with 



156 UNOPPOSED MASTEK OF EBIE. 

hardly an effort from any quarter to oppose them. One 
public-spirited citizen purchased some of the stock and 
commenced legal proceedings with a design of bringing 
Fisk and Gould to account. The result was that his suit 
was taken out of the district in which he brought it, 
dragged before Judge Barnard in New York city, who 
issued an injunction forbidding him from taking any fur- 
ther proceedings, fined him $5,000 for contempt of court 
in violating this injunction by making preparations for the 
trial, then he was forced to trial without any preparation 
and before this same judge, and, when he objected to 
going to trial before Barnard, judgment was entered 
against him by default. This experiment was not en- 
couraging for any one else to attempt to interfere with 
Messrs. Fisk and Gould in their management. A bill 
was introduced into the last Legislature to repeal the Erie 
classification bill, but after slumbering in the hands of the 
eommittee for several weeks, a majority reported against 
the repeal, having been convinced of its propriety. Pro- 
bably the committee on railroads for many years to come 
will need to have their minds convinced annually on this 
subject by the arguments Messrs. Gould and Fisk are 
adepts at applying, and after considering the matter care- 
fully, a la Mattoon, will report against the repeal. 

The issue of new stock and the tricks of the manage- 
ment in the fall of 1868 became so outrageous that the 
Stock Board at length resolved to shield itself from such 
frauds. On the 27th of October a committee of the 



A RESOLUTION FOR ERIE'S BENEFIT. 157 

board waited upon Jay Gould to make inquiries as to the 
amount of new stock that had been issued and the 
probabilities as to more new issues. The president of 
Erie was very bland and affable to the committee, his 
nervous black eye twinkling with an unwonted sparkle 
as he talked at much length upon every question asked 
him. The committee were quite dazzled by the grandeur 
of his notions and ideas, and with their eyes thus loaded 
with dust they returned to report progress. When the 
knowledge they had gathered was submitted to the cru- 
cible of the board and stripped of Jay Grould's verbiage, 
it was found that new stock had been issued to the 
extent of ten millions of dollars and there was no telling 
how long the process would be kept up. This much- 
enduring body, unable to restrain their indignation and 
impatience any longer passed a resolution : 

" That on and after January 31st, 1869, this board will 
not call or deal in any active speculative stock of any 
company a registry of whose stock is not kept in some 
responsible bank or trust company or other satisfactory 
agency, and which shall not give public notice at the time 
of establishing such registry of the number of shares so 
entrusted to be registered and shall not give at least thirty 
days' notice through the newspapers and in writing to the 
president of this board of any intended increase of the 
number of shares, either direct or through an issue of 
convertible bonds, and which shall not at the same time 
give notice of the object for which such issue of stock or 
bonds is about to be made." 



158 ERIE THROWN OUT OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE. 

This was a most reasonable and appropriate regula- 
tion and one to which no honest board of directors 
could make the least objection ; but when the ap- 
pointed 31st of January, 1869, arrived Erie had not 
registered in compliance with this resolution and it was 
consequently stricken from the list of stocks called 
at the Stock Board. Fisk and Gould, with an utter 
indifference and even contempt for this disgrace of their 
road and stock, stepped just across Broad Street from the 
Stock Exchange, engaged a suitable room, organized a 
new board of their own, called the National Board, 
wherein Erie and all the other stocks were called and 
dealt in as though nothing had happened. It was not 
till a year and a half later that Erie was finally registered 
and resumed its place on the list at the Stock Board. 

Between the time that these men came into power and 
September 30th, 1869, the capital stock of the road was 
increased $53,425,700. The amount expended in equip- 
ping and improving the road during the same time was 
$6,297,067, leaving $49,128,633 wholly unaccounted for, 
and where it has gone nobody but Messrs. Fisk and 
Gould probably has any positive knowledge. In the year 
and a half since the latter date the same policy and style 
of management has been kept up, the deeds constantly 
deepening in darkness of hue, as a course of crime ever 
does. The increase of stock has continued and some of 
the circumstances connected with the latest issues seem 
destined to involve the performers in trouble from which 



EKIE PAYS NO DIVIDENDS. 159 

they may not so easily escape. Erie has for a year or 
more stood at about 20. No dividend has been declared 
on any of the stock since the advent of Fisk and Grould, the 
debts of the corporation have been largely increased, so 
that all the profits earned by the road as well as the many 
millions received for new stock, remain unaccounted for. 
No one but Fisk and Grould knows anything about it, and 
what they know they are sagely inclined to keep to them- 



CHAPTER VIII. 

REVENGE A LETTRE DE CACHET AN EDITOR WHIPPED INTO 

JAIL AT MIDNIGHT VAIN SEARCHES FOR FISK AND MAGIS- 
TRATES—MR. FISK GLORIES OVER THE EVENT IN PRINT. 

Mr. Fisk closed the first year of his prominence in New 
York by an act betraying the worst and most dangerous 
trait of his character — a trait much more dangerous to 
himself than to its victims — a delight in spiteful, wanton 
bootless revenge. On the morning of December 23d the 
citizens of New York were startled by an item of news in 
the morning papers that sounded more like an echo of 
the days of lettres de cachet and the French B as tile than 
the nineteenth century and the land that boasts of being 
in the van of liberty and personal security. A distin- 
guished and highly respected gentleman had been 
suddenly seized the previous night and whipped into 
prison without being informed of the cause, handled in 
the roughest manner, and all friends were refused 
admittance to see him till morning. 

About nine o'clock on the night of December 22d, 
while the New England Society in New York were 



WHIPPED INTO JAIL AT MIDNIGHT. 161 

around the "festive board" commemorating the landing 
of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, and the Sachems of 
Tammany Hall were in like manner celebrating the 
election of A. Oakey Hall as Mayor, Samuel Bowles, Esq., 
the well-known editor of the Springfield Republican, was 
standing in the main hall of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
talking with some friends, when two men came in, 
one of whom passed behind him then turned suddenly, 
seized him by the arms, and rushed him along towards 
the street while the other held a crumpled paper in his 
face saying it was an order for his arrest and helping 
push him out of the house. When they reached the 
sidewalk a carriage was in waiting into which Mr. Bowles 
was hurriedly forced and then drive^n rapidly away to 
Ludlow Street jail. The movement was so sudden, and 
the spectators were taken so completely by surprise, that 
no interference could be made on his behalf. When se- 
curely behind the bars of the jail, Mr. Bowles was 
permitted to read the legal document in virtue of which 
he had thus been seized and incarcerated. The founda- 
tion of the proceeding proved to be as follows : 

SUPERIOR COURT, CITY OF NEW YORK. 



James Fisk, Jr., 

vs. 
Samuel Bowles and others, composing 
the firm of Samuel Bowles & Co. 

City and County op New York, ss. : 

James Fisk, Jr., being duly sworn, deposes and says 



162 THE CAUSE. 

that he is the plaintiff in the above entitled action ; that 
on the 28th day of November, 1868, the defendant, 
Samuel Bowles, being the principal editor or editor in 
chief of certain newspapers published by the said Samuel 
Bowles & Co., in the City of Springfield and State of 
Massachusetts, known and described as " The Daily 
Springfield Republican" and "The Semi- Weekly Spring- 
field Republican" did compose and publish of and con- 
cerning this deponent, plaintiff aforesaid, the following 
false, malicious scandalous and defamatory matter, to wit : 
"But Fisk has probably destroyed the credit of the 
railroad (meaning the Erie Railway Co.), while piling up 
a fortune for himself. The multiplication of its stock has 
been fearful. From thirty millions of nominal capital a 
year ago it has been raised to sixty or seventy millions 
and what there is4o show for the difference beyond some 
worthless securities of the Hartford & Erie Railroad and 
a million or two of real estate it is now impossible to say. 
The issue of new shares seems to have been wanton, and 
to no purpose in great part but to gamble in Wall Street 
with. Nothing so audacious, nothing more gigantic in 
the way of swindling has ever been perpetrated in this 
country, and yet it may be that Mr. Eisk and his asso- 
ciates have done nothing that they cannot legally justify, 
at least in the New York Courts, several of which they 
(meaning deponent Fisk and others) seem wholly to own. 
Fisk's operations are said to be under the legal guidance 
of both David Dudley Field and Charles O'Connor, and 
now both Judge Barnard of the State and Judge Blatch- 
ford of the United States Court, back up and help on his 

proceedings Many even of his friends predict for 

him the state prison or the lunatic asylum." 



THE CAUSE. 163 

Deponent further says that the same matter as last 
above recited as having been published in the said 
" Daily and Semi- Weekly Springfield Republican" was 
republished in "The Weekly Springfield Republican" 
also published by the above named defendants, on the 
5th day of December, a. d. 1868. Deponent further 
says that an action was commenced in this Court by 
this deponent on the 21st day of December, 1868, for 
libel for the above recited false, malicious, scandalous 
and defamatory matter, as above stated, published by 
the defendants against the above named plaintiff, claim- 
ing damages in the sum of $50,000. 

Deponent further says that the said newspapers, pub- 
lished by the defendants, have a wide and extensive circu- 
lation in the City and County of New York and elsewhere, 
and that by reason of said publication this deponent has 
been damaged and injured in his character and reputation 
and his usefulness and efficiency as a director and man- 
ager of the vast interests intrusted to his care as manag- 
ing director of the Erie Railway Company seriously and 
wantonly injured and damaged — this as well for the 
stockholders in said company at large as for this depo- 
nent. 

James Fisk, Jr. 

To accommodate Mr. Fisk, Judge McCunn held a 
special evening session of his Court, so urgent were the 
needs of justice in this case deemed, and upon the above 
affidavit granted an order for the arrest of Mr. Bowles. 
Sheriff James O'Brien being then on very intimate terms 
with Fisk and often detailing deputies to serve him, was 
also easily found on this occasion and deemed the matter 



164 COURT AND SHERIFF OBLIGING MR. FISK. 

so important that he went to give his personal superin- 
tendence (a rare favor) to the arrest of Mr. Bowles. But 
the moment the arrest was effected, none of the faithful 
guardians and depositaries of the law could be found any 
where. Every one with power to accept bail and release 
Mr. Bowles had disappeared for the night and he was 
consigned to the jail till morning. Several of Mr. Bowles's 
friends called to see him soon after his incarceration, but 
the jailor seemed to be a friend of Fisk's also, for they 
were refused permission to see the prisoner. Mr. Dud- 
ley Field was greatly scandalized at this act of his 
distinguished client, and as Mr. Bowles was then an 
intimate friend of the Field family, he rode about 
town till the early morning hours in search of Mr. 
Fisk to obtain the release of the friend of his family, but 
in vain. All attempts to find a magistrate to accept bail 
being of no avail and the efforts of his friends to obtain 
his release before morning proving fruitless, Mr. Bowles 
prepared to spend the night in Ludlow Street jail. It 
was not a fate that disturbed his nerves in the least and 
he would have cared nothing about it except for his wife. 
She was in very feeble health, and he feared the news of 
the outrage coming so suddenly upon her might affect 
her quite injuriously. He did manage to obtain from the 
jailor the great favor of sending her a letter, humorously 
describing his prospective lodgings for the night and then 
passed the night without any of the agony or mortification 
which Mr. Fisk would doubtless have felt in the same 



GB.EEK ETHICS. 165 

situation, and therefore supposed another would feel. 
Ethics was not included in the small curriculum of Mr. 
Fisk's education and he was never a frequenter of Sab- 
bath schools in his youth, so he has never attained to such 
a, high moral perception as to understand that it is not the 
fact of being in jail, but the cause of being there, that con- 
stitutes the disgrace, if disgrace there be. To him the 
mere circumstance of being behind grates and iron doors 
is disgrace and mortification, and so long as that cannot 
~be said of a man he is honorable no matter what his acts, 
but with the jailor's key once turned on him he must bow 
his head in shame forever. He seems to be imbued with 
the Greek morals and philosophy, which placed the dis- 
grace not in stealing the fox but in getting caught. 

The next morning of course Mr. Bowles was immedi- 
ately bailed and released, the bail being put at the 
moderate sum of $50,000. He rather enjoyed the 
episode than otherwise, and nothing else that Mr. Fisk 
could possibly have done would have been such a benefit 
to Mr. Bowles. Every honest man in the country saw 
the principle of his own liberty rudely struck at in 
the person of the Springfield editor and felt that if such 
imperial outrages as this were possible under the machi- 
nations of the greatest scapegraces outside of Sing Sing, 
and with the connivance of courts and sheriffs, personal 
freedom and safety were at an end and the time for a 
vigilance committee had arrived. The whole press of the 
country teemed with denunciations of the outrage and 



166 MR. BOWLES LIONIZED. 

indignation and sympathy for the victim. Letters flowed 
in upon Mr. Bowles by the bushel and the most dis- 
tinguished citizens of Boston offered him the compli- 
ment of a public reception and dinner, which was mod- 
estly declined. The act which Mr. Fisk intended should 
disgrace and mortify Mr. Bowles raised him instantly 
to an honored fame and prominence which he would 
probably otherwise never have achieved. But Mr. Fisk 
evidently felt he had done a very "smart" thing and 
gloried so much in the eclat of this climax to his first 
year of conspicuous position before the public that he 
went into print on the subject as follows : 

At Home, Boston, Mass., 

Christmas Day. 

On the 28th of November last " Samuel Bowles, Esq. r 
of Springfield, Mass.," published an editorial headed 
" The New Hero of Wall Street." It was devoted to a 
bitter, abusive, untruthful and unprovoked attack on my 
origin, vocation, habits, personal appearance, and family 
afflictions. For example, with a reckless disregard of 
truth and railroad possibilities, " Samuel Bowles, Esq., of 
Springfield, Mass.," said : " But Fisk has probably 
destroyed the credit of the railroad while piling up a 
fortune for himself. The multiplication of its stock has 
been fearful. From thirty millions of nominal capital 
a year ago it has been raised to sixty or seventy millions, 
and what there is to show for the difference beyond some 
worthless securities of the Hartford & Erie Bailroad 
and a million or two of real estate it is now impossible to 
say." Were it not inconsistent with my well-known 



MR. FISK GLORIES IN PRINT. 167 

good nature and forgiving disposition, I should unhes- 
itatingly pronounce " Samuel Bowles, Esq., of Spring- 
field, Mass.," an abandoned falsifier and a fool on that 
single statement. Further on, the Springfield Republican 
has asserted its capacity for wholesale slander by the 
following astounding calumny on the Bench and Bar of 
New York : " Nothing so audacious, nothing more 
gigantic in the way of swindling has ever been perpe- 
trated in this country and yet it may be that Mr. Fisk 
and his associates have done nothing that they cannot 
legally justify, at least in the New York Courts, several 
of which they seem wholly to own. Fisk's operations are 
said to be under the legal guidance of both David 
Dudley Field and Charles O'Connor, and now both Judge 
Barnard of the State and Judge Blatchford of the United 
States Court back up and help on his proceedings." 

The alleged indifference of the New York city authori- 
ties to the incarceration of " Samuel Bowles, Esq., of 
Springfield, Mass.," was not, you will see, entirely unjust- 
ifiable. Culpable as I am in selling "silks, poplins and 
velvets by the yard," the generous nature of " Samuel 
Bowles, Esq., of Springfield, Mass.," is not finally and 
utterly turned against me until he has ascertained that I 
am guilty of having a father who is unhappily an inmate 
of a lunatic asylum. This sours all the milk of human 
kindness in the breast of the Springfield journalist, and 
he prophetically consigns me to a "mad house or state 
prison." Under the circumstances, Messrs. Editors, don't 
you think I had cause to feel vexed with "Samuel 
Bowles, Esq., of Springfield, Mass. " ? In order to protect 
my rights I appealed to the law, which is the highest 
expression of human wisdom for the good government of 



168 SMALL-BEER EDITORS. 

mankind. If any error has been committed, those who' 
made the law committed it. I regret that the wife of 
" Samuel Bowles, Esq., of Springfield, Mass." was dis- 
turbed or even annoyed by her husband's temporary ab- 
sence. As for the sympathy of the sycophantic horde of 
office seekers and small-beer editors, who clamored around 
the jail gates for their comrade's release, their abuse I 
expected and am indifferent to. Mr. Bowles proposed the 
game himself and I bowled him over the first innings. I 
think it will be generally conceded that I have as much 
right to defend my personal character as any newspaper 
has to attack it. At all events I shall do so with the most- 
unflinching determination until it is proven to the con- 
trary. Mr. Bowles need not fear but that I will bring 
him to trial before a judicial tribunal, and then ''let 
justice be done though the heavens fall," and these are a 
few of the reasons, Messrs. Editors, why I arrested and 
locked up " Samuel Bowles, Esq., of Springfield, Mass." 
Your obedient servant, 

James Fisk, Jr. 

This letter needs no comment. The peculiar notions 
which the writer entertains as to the duty of " New York 
city officials," his interpretation and application of " law," 
as well as some of the things which give him pleasure and 
which he thinks very " smart," are perfectly apparent. 
The letter is a faithful photograph of the man. It is 
evident from his own words that he was stung, not by 
what he quotes in his affidavits and makes the ground of 
his complaint, and that he cared not a straw for its effect 
upon his railroad, but that the personalities inflicted the 



REPUBLICAN SCURRILITY. 169 

■wound and that Mr. Fisk sought not "justice" at the 
%ands of " the law," but revenge. When he had kept 
Mr. Bowles in jail over night he was quite satisfied, felt 
his "personal character" amply defended, and despite the 
braggart conclusion of his letter nothing more ever came 
of the suit. He had previously commenced a suit for libel 
against Mr. Bowles in the Massachusetts Courts, putting 
the damage at $50,000. The sudden discontinuance of 
this suit and the instantaneous bringing another in New 
York and spiriting Mr. Bowles into jail makes his real 
purpose manifest and shows how little he cared to " let 
justice be done." 

The article in the Republican was written in the cheap 
sensational style which has largely characterized the 
columns of that paper, and, in parts at least, was utterly 
reckless of the truth and of private feelings and disgust- 
ingly coarse and vulgar. The paragraph which undoubt- 
edly did most to excite Mr. Fisk's desire for revenge, and 
justly, was that running : 

" The appellation of ' fat, fair and forty,' so often ap- 
plied to well preserved women, belongs peculiarly to him. 
He is almost as broad as he is high, and so round that he 
rolls rather than walks. But his nervous energy is 
stimulated rather than deadened by his fat which gives 
indeed a momentum to his mental movement and his 
personal influence." 

This is grossly and scurrilously false, in the first place, 
and in the second, were it true, it would be none the less 
unjustifiable, mean, coarse and unworthy a place in any 



170 CONTRADICTIONS. 

paper making the slightest claim to decency. Again it 
proceeds : " Yankee of course, and Vermonter at that, and 
a peddler to boot, do we not tell the whole secret of his 
life ?" A sneer at the people probably constituting nine- 
teen-twentieths of the Republican's patrons, a special fling 
at Vermonters as of 'eminence in the contemptible, the 
climax capped with the sneer " a peddler to boot," and 
yet Mr. Bowles says, " there is nothing in it that ridiculed 
Mr. Fisk's previous occupation." But Mr. Bowles has 
shown the worth of his opinion on the subject by giving 
two of an almost exactly opposite character. 

In one place he has said " there is a rolicking impu- 
dence in the style of the article ; but how could the 
subject be treated sympathetically in any other way ? 
You might as well paint a red rose with white coloring as 
to portray Mr. Fisk's character in any other than the 
style used." In another place he has said it was " a 
friendly warning ... to husband the resources of his 
health . . . and to dedicate his energies to better and 
more legitimate purposes." 

The journalist that prostitutes his position and panders 
to the morbid taste for sensation in order to secure a 
large circulation for his paper, deserves to be ranked with 
the publisher of obscene literature. He is even meaner, 
for he does more to corrupt public taste and makes a 
pretence to decency while engaged in the filthiest work 
for gain. The extent to which private rights and feelings 
are outraged in this country, in order that papers, claim- 



REVENGE SATED. 171 

ing, like the Republican, to be decent, may make their 
columns " racy," has grown to be almost insufferable, and 
had Mr. Fisk pushed his suit for libel in a proper way 
and succeeded in mulcting Mr. Bowles in a heavy sum, as 
he richly deserved, nearly every one would have rejoiced 
and thanked him for doing a good service to the public. 
But proceeding by an outrage upon the law, abandoning 
all punishment and seeming satisfied after securing the 
offender in jail a few hours by means of a conspiracy, was 
too sudden a passage from the sublime to the ridiculous 
and for the moment stamped as a hero and martyr a man 
whose legal incarceration would have been well deserved. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

THE I1IPRESSARI0 THEATRICALS A MARBLE PALACE PRINCE - 

ERIE. 

Having achieved all the notoriety possible in railroad 
management by the close of 1869, Mr. Fisk suddenly 
blossomed into an entirely new role before the New York 
public with the opening of 1870, becoming all at once the 
Maecenas of the stage. It has been a favorite pastime of 
royalty in all ages to dally with the children of Melpom- 
ene, Thalia or Terpsichore, according to taste and temper- 
ament. Mr. Fisk's financial resources being now quite 
royal, he became a patron of histrionic art as a means of 
Using a portion of his revenue in a good cause at the same 
time that it yielded him much amusement and recreation. 
And this he did on a scale quite worthy the most illustri- 
ous of his royal prototypes and in a style of grandeur that 
many a prince might envy. First he purchased Pike's 
Opera House, a grand new marble palace at the corner of 
23d Street and 8th Avenue, the name being at once 
changed to "The Grand Opera House" on his coming 
into possession. He next almost entirely rebuilt what is. 



JA AND SHAKSPBAEE. 173 

now the Fifth Avenue Theatre, in 23d Street, making it 
one of the most elegant little theatres in the world. In 
May he leased the Academy of Music, in 14th Street, and 
was thus operating all at one time, the three finest places 
of amusement in New York. He prepared entertain- 
ments at each of the three establishments without the 
slightest regard to expense, determined on having every 
detail and appointment perfect. Thirty thousand dollars 
and more was said to have been expended in preparing 
one piece alone for the stage. But he soon became con- 
scious of the quicksands upon which all impressarios 
seem fated to stand in this country. The public did not 
sustain him in his unsparing outlay for their entertain- 
ment and he soon found himself losing heavily at each of 
his three theatres. When he came into possession of 
Pike's Opera House, French Comic Opera was on the 
boards there, and had been a very unprofitable venture 
for his predecessor. This he continued for a time, but 
finding it could not be made to pay, he closed the estab- 
lishment for some changes and to prepare for the presen- 
tation of Shakspeare's grand play of "The Tempest." 
Elaborate preparations were made for the revival of this 
piece which had been long absent from the New York 
boards, and when the curtain again rose upon an audience 
in the Grand Opera House they were dazzled with the 
new splendors and beautiful decorations and frescoes 
which had completely transformed the appearance of the 
place. And the change behind the scenes had been no 



174 THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND " LURLINE. 

less complete, every appointment being now of the most 
perfect style. But this play, too, failed to meet the reward 
which the efforts expended in its presentation merited and 
was withdrawn after a brief unprosperous season. 

The little " Boudoir Theatre " in 24th Street, had been 
built for Mr. John Brougham, the well-known actor and 
playwright and was called after him " Brougham's The- 
atre." But he had not been installed in his elegant house 
long ere Mr. Fisk's hearty and generous admiration for 
him waned and then changed into an irreconcilable un- 
pleasantness. Mr. Brougham's management failed of the 
anticipated success, and after two unsuccessful months he 
was turned out of his beautiful possession rather uncere- 
moniously, and its name was changed to the " Fifth Ave- 
nue Theatre." The French Opera which had been with- 
drawn from the Grand Opera House was given another 
trial here, but with a success equally lacking in encourage- 
ment for its long continuance. 

At the Academy of Music the celebrated Opera of 
"Lurline" was presented after the most expensive prepa- 
rations, being rendered in English and Italian on alter- 
nate nights. But the result was so discouraging that 
after a run of two weeks it had to be withdrawn and th e 
doors closed, about $20,000 having been lost in the enter- 
prise. 

His first season of theatrical experience had been one 
of expensive schooling and amusement to him. But 
disastrous as each venture had been pecuniarily, he was 



THE TWELVE TEMPTATIONS. 175 

not discouraged or crippled. Though any other manager 
would most likely have been ruined financially by the 
losses incurred at either of the places, Mr. Fisk stood up 
under them all without a nerve shaken and whiffed his 
cigar as calmly as though all had gone prosperously. He, 
however, did not care to go over the same ground again 
the following season. The lease of the Academy of Music 
was not renewed, and the Fifth Avenue Theatre was 
leased and passed out of Mr. Fisk's personal supervision. 
But he still retained control of the Grand Opera House, 
and concentrated all his attention in the theatrical line to 
this one place. It is very doubtful if his fortune does not 
still continue to grow worse rather than better from this 
enterprise. One piece alone has had any lasting success 
and long run with him. " The Twelve Temptations " was 
brought out the second winter of his management and 
had a long run to crowded houses and must have been a 
fine pecuniary success. It was a piece in the spectacular, 
" Black Crook " style, depending largely upon the ballet 
and the exhibition of the charms of the female form for 
its attraction. New attractions were added from time to 
time, and to keep up the interest at the close a corps of 
beautiful blondes alternated with one of ravishing 
brunettes from night to night. 

But Mr. Fisk has shown his strongest admiration for 
theatrical amusement to be in Opera Bouffe. This seems 
to be his ideal of fun and fine music combined and he has 
manifested the most unflinching determination to bring 



176 OPERA BOXJFFE. 

the public to his taste and way of thinking. It has 
formed the continuous programme at his Grand Opera 
House the past season and has been given, as is every- 
thing that he presents, with all the attractions that an 
unstinted expenditure of money could produce. He sent 
Max Maretzek, the most experienced opera manager in 
the country, to Europe as his special agent to import a 
first-class company for his theatre, and left nothing undone 
to present French Opera to the citizens of New York in 
its most attractive guise. To lend variety and increase 
the charms, three different leading artists were introduced 
to sustain a single part, each carrying it through one act. 
Almost without regard to pecuniary results, he has mani- 
fested the most persistent determination to give Opera 
Bouffe a firm hold upon New Yorkers as it had upon 
Parisians. The effort has not been so far successful that 
any other manager could present it in New York without 
speedily becoming bankrupt. 

Mr. Fisk started in his theatrical career by securing 
the ablest and most experienced managers in the country 
to direct his establishments, and this would seem to be 
the course of wisdom and prudence ; but somehow his 
relations soon proved unpleasant and incompatible with 
all of them. Brougham, Bergfeldt, Tayleure, and 
Maretzek, all eminently first class men in their lines, 
came and passed in quick succession in the management 
of his various enterprises on the stage. It is almost an 
axiom that two first class men can never work advan- 



INCOMPATIBILITIES. 177 

tageously together in the head management of any 
enterprise, a truth that has been well illustrated here. 
All these men employed by Mr. Fisk were men of marked 
ability, excellent judgment and taste and high culture in 
their calling, and of a mental cast and self-respect that 
could yield no servile or sycophantic deference to the 
notions of Mr. Fisk in matters pertaining to their pro- 
fession, while he is a man whose individuality is so 
marked and positive as to make harmony impossible un- 
less he is yielded to, hence irreconcilable differences soon 
arose, and, under the law that obtains in this age and 
country, the taste, judgment and preference of the man 
holding the purse strings prevailed over the men of cul- 
ture and education and the latter retired leaving Mr. Fisk 
to carry out his own peculiar notions. The treatment of 
Mr. Brougham was such as might well have provoked a 
personal encounter had that gentlemen been as impulsive 
and as indifferent to a" scene " as Mr. Fisk, but being a 
man with the passions trained into a better control and 
knowing the quietest way was the best in such circum- 
stances, their connection ended without blows. But the 
more irascible Maretzek was destined to a bellicose close 
•of relations with his impulsive and blunt patron. The 
Opera Bouffe company that had been imported from 
Europe for the Grand Opera House were in rehearsal for 
their first appearance at the same time that . Nilsson ar- 
rived. The company was in charge of Maretzek at the 
rehearsals, and as he had been sent abroad to select it, 



178 MAKETZEK. 

the tacit understanding was that he would be the con- 
ductor at the Grand Opera House for the season ; but Mr. 
Fisk had failed to enter into any written agreement in 
the matter and held Maretzek entirely at the mercy of his 
pleasure and caprice — an insecurity which the veteran 
impressario did not at all relish. Feeling that nothing 
was secure as to his position with Mr. Fisk, he was 
naturally disinclined to neglect any other opportunity 
that he might have and therefore accepted a proposition 
to act as conductor at the first Nilsson concert. Now, Mr. 
Fisk looked upon the Nilsson company as an " opposition 
show " to his and was for that reason somewhat jealous of 
it, and hearing that his man Max was to conduct on the 
occasion of the first appearance of the Swedish songstress 
he wrote a note ordering him not to do so. Mr. Fisk was 
present on the opening night of the "opposition show" 
and his temper was somewhat ruffled when the grand 
entree revealed to his sight his man Max coming forward 
in full dress, baton in hand and making his bow as con- 
ductor in defiance of the imperial note of warning. De- 
spite the purifying influence of the sublime emotions 
awakened by the echo of another world that sounded in 
the unearthly strains of the wonderful songstress and the 
elevation far above all things earthly to which she lifted 
her auditors, the displeasure of Mr. Fisk excited by the 
act of disobedience was softened only for the moment, if 
at all. On reaching the Grand Opera House the next 
morning he gave orders that if Maretzek came to conduct 



PUTTING ON THE GLOVES. 179 

the rehearsal that day, word should be brought him 
immediately. Maretzek came and his arrival was an- 
nounced as directed. Mr. Fisk hastened down into the 
theatre and approached the conductor's stand with an 
expression that meant "business" on his countenance. 
He proceeded at once to call Max to account for disobey- 
ing the note and conducting an " opposition show." Max 
attempted to explain, but Mr. Fisk knew the whole story, 
refused to be appeased and instead of waiting to hear the 
explanation, proceeded to pronounce Maretzek a " swind- 
ler," " thief," " liar," and other kindred epithets. This 
was more than Max could endure and he immediately 
descended from his stand and levelled a powerful blow at 
Mr. Fisk's nose. The latter parried and dodged in such a 
way that the blow did no serious damage, and then the 
two closed in a fierce struggle and soon went down, Fisk 
coming on top. The shrieks and fright of the assembled 
corps de ballet and jjrime donne would have won them 
great credit at an evening performance, and in fact it is 
doubtful if the whole scene would not have excelled in 
interest anything that has ever been put upon the Grand 
Opera House boards, could it have taken place before an 
audience in the evening. When some of the bystanders 
recovered sufficient presence of mind to separate the com- 
batants it was found that no great damage had been done 
beyond a serious soiling of Mr. Fisk's tidy toilet and at- 
tire and the making of a slightly black eye for Maretzek. 
Beyond affording a racy topic for the newspapers for two 



180 TEOX7BLE WITH " PRIME DONNE." 

or three days, and a suit commenced or threatened by 
each of the parties, but of which nothing ever came, the 
matter died away like its many predecessors and Mr. 
Fisk's connection with the last of his distinguished mana- 
gers ended. 

With his Opera Bouffe prime donne, too, Mr. Fisk 
seems not to get on at all well. At the beginning of the 
season M'lles. Montaland and Silly, the two leading char- 
acters whom Maretzek had brought out, seemed to please 
Mr. Fisk not a little, and they in turn seemed dazzled by 
the grandeur of the great impressario, and all went 
" merry as a marriage bell " for a time. Ere long, how- 
ever, disagreements and unpleasant relations grew up, 
Montaland and Silly disappeared from the Grand Opera 
House boards and Aimee was summoned from London by 
telegram. She at once became a great favorite with the 
frequenters of Opera Bouffe and everything went smoothly 
till the close of the season at the Grand Opera House. 
When the company started on a summer tour, however, 
Aim6e became indignant at some treatment of her in the 
matter of her salary, and the difficulty grew so great that 
she suddenly refused to sing any more in the performances 
going on in Boston and left the company in disgust. 

Perhaps Mr. Fisk would have been obliged to close 
his last theatre and withdraw from theatrical business 
altogether were it not that the Grand Opera House has 
been otherwise turned to such good account that he is not 
entailed with much if any expense for the rent of the 



HIS PRESENCE CHAMBER. 181 

theatre. He paid $820,000 for the edifice. In the sum- 
mer of 1869 the second floor was most sumptuously fitted 
up and became the offices of the Erie Railway. It is 
unequalled in elegance by any building in the world used 
for a similar purpose. The doors are of massive, ele- 
gantly carved black walnut, all the offices are fitted up 
and furnished in black walnut and the most expensive 
glass, and over the door of each office is a silver plate 
sign indicating the department. On the opposite side 
from the main entrance door is an ante-room where stand 
several ushers preventing further admission without first 
sending in your card or stating your business in advance 
and getting permission. Behind the door opening from 
the ante-room into the presence-chamber stands a large 
screen, so that when the door opens nothing but a red 
curtain can be seen. Should your card or business be 
looked upon favorably and obtain you permission to 
enter, the usher will bow you through the door, past the 
screen, and there, behind a richly carved black walnut 
desk of mammoth size, in a luxurious chair, sits James 
Fisk, Jr., on his throne. About him are numerous 
clerks, messengers and lackeys doing his bidding and 
laughing at his humor, which he keeps constantly flowing 
in the midst of all his business. Within his reach are 
springs sending signals to all parts of the building, so that 
every employe in the establishment can be summoned to 
him instantly in case of necessity. All the ceilings are 
richly frescoed, that in the main room being an elegant 



1 82 IN MABBLK HALLS. 

symbolic design having at the four sides the words New 
York, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Louis. On the floor 
above is a grand banqueting room fitted up in the same 
style of splendor, where sumptuous entertainments are 
occasionally given. The Erie Eailway pays $75,000 rent 
for the apartments occupied for its offices, and in addition 
to this is the rent of the stores on the ground floor and 
some other property included in the purchase — the whole 
making the investment a very profitable one aside from 
the theatre and the apartments appropriated to the 
owner's private use. Mr. Fisk's residence is in the 
immediate vicinity on 23d Street, which makes all his 
arrangements very complete. Here, surrounded by all 
the luxury which his taste and wealth can devise 
he leads a much more lordly and imperial life than many 
a modern Prince, and in his sumptuous halls may well be 
called " Prince Erie." 



CHAPTER X. 

A LION AGAIN METAMORPHOSIS AT THE BOSTON PEACE JUBI- 
LEE a FLOATING PALACE SUNDAY TKIPS TTP THE HUDSON 

THE ADMIRAL. 

Through, all the varied phases of his life since leaving 
his peddling business at Brattleboro Mr Fisk had never 
held any position which compelled people to look at him 
daily in all his splendors with anything like the attention 
he attracted in that first stage of his career. But he had 
now achieved a notoriety so great that the gay throng of 
the city would gaze at him as the country people once had 
done, were opportunity offered. The summer of 1869 gave 
the opportunity and he enjoyed all the gratification in this 
respect that could be desired. The Narraganset Steam- 
ship Company was formed this season. Mr. Fisk became 
its president and thereby came into control of the finest 
line of steamers running on Long Island Sound. The two 
boats, Providence and Bristol, were thoroughly over- 
hauled, renovated, fitted up in the most luxuriant style, 
refurnished with elegant carpets, upholstering, bronzes 
and general fixtures. The dining rooms were conducted 
on the a la carte, or European, plan and supplied all the 



184 A LION ONCE MOKE. 

accommodations and luxuries of a first-class hotel. To add 
to the pleasure of the lovely ride up the Sound, a fine 
band of music accompanies each steamer and delights 
the passengers with sweet strains of choice music through 
the first four hours of the trip. This novel feature adds 
much to the enjoyment of the journey and is highly ap- 
preciated by the public. It is to be regretted that the 
famous North Eiver line has not followed the innovation. 
Everything objectionable under the former management 
disappeared and this became one of the most delightful 
and wholly enjoyable trips to be had anywhere in the 
world. 

It was in these steamers that Mr. Fisk seemed to take 
his special pride that summer, as he justly might. Each 
afternoon, a half hour or so before it was time for the 
steamer to start, he came upon the pier, in a " nobby " 
citizen's suit, disappeared in some of the company's offices 
and soon emerged again in a full Admiral's uniform of the 
finest make. In this attire, which was quite becoming to 
him, he took his place at the gangway, where he must be 
seen by all who entered. His appearance the first few 
evenings created a grand sensation. The gay company 
that were promenading the decks and saloons, admiring 
the rich gilding, furniture, bronzes and mirrors, and listen- 
ing to the music, suddenly turned all their attention upon 
the man who had achieved so much notoriety, who had 
furnished the pleasures they were then enjoying and who 
dictated orders to the noble steamer and the crew. All 



BENEWAL OE EARLY DELIGHTS. 185 

crowded around to get a view of the man they had heard 
so much about of late. Young ladies whispered to each 
other and turned to gaze at .him after they passed in ; 
fathers pointed him out to their wives and children, and 
no one wished to miss a sight of him. There, in his ele- 
gant uniform, with the huge diamond sparkling in his 
shirt bosom, stood the man who had trapped both Van- 
derbilt and Drew, who had been the shield and sword of 
the Erie exiles in "Fort Taylor," who had made all Wall 
Street howl under his manipulations, who had purchased 
the Grand Opera House, built the Fifth Avenue Theatre 
and leased the Academy of Music — all within one short 
year. He was now the cynosure of all eyes and created 
the same sensation among the gaily dressed denizens of the 
city as he had formerly done among rustic villagers. The 
situation was one which he evidently enjoyed to the full, 
though he seemed sublimely unconscious of the curiosity 
directed to him, and issued his orders and directions as 
rapidly and imperatively as though he were wholly ab- 
sorbed in his duties. Precisely on the moment announced 
for starting, he gave the command and the elegant 
steamer put out into the stream with her heavy load of 
passengers crowding her decks, music playing, flags 
flying, all her crew in uniform, each man having a badge 
on his cap showing his office and duty. It was a moment 
that was a full renewal of the feeling of pride which the 
young peddler felt on the morning when he first mounted 
his brilliant new cart and dashed out of Brattleboro with 



186 A SEA NYMPH. 

his four-in-hand and followers. The Admiral remained 
on board till the steamer was well out in the bay or 
hauled round into the East Eiver. Here he was met by 
a small tug boat that came out to bear him back to the 
city. As he parted from the steamer that was now his 
pride, the company crowded around for another glimpse 
of him and the officers gave their commander a parting 
salute. 

The sensation and dramatic effect of Mr. Fisk's arrival 
upon the pier and casting off from the steamer upon the 
tug, was greatly intensified the first few evenings by his 
being accompanied by his female favorite of the hour, 
attired like himself in naval style — a jacket of navy blue 
with gilt buttons and epaulettes, a hat in the sailor style, 
and decked out in all matters of detail in a manner evi- 
dently indicating a careful consultation of the Admiral's 
taste. 

The custom of going out into the stream with the 
departing steamer was not continued long. It necessi- 
tated a stop and some inconvenience, and was therefore 
discontinued as soon as the novelty and glory of the cer- 
emony had worn away. Thereafter Mr. Fisk contented 
himself with giving and receiving the parting salute as 
the steamer put out from the pier. This formality over, 
he again disappeared in the offices of the company and 
soon came out metamorphosed in a surprisingly short 
time from a full-blown Admiral into a private citizen 
dressed in the extreme of fashion. 



"jubilee jim." 187 

It was in June of this year that the great Peace Ju- 
bilee took place in Boston. President Grant went on to 
attend and when he arrived in New York the best 
accommodations of Mr. Fisk's steamers were placed at his 
disposal and accepted. The Admiral improved this oppor- 
tunity to have a little familiar conversation with the 
President. Jay Gould and several others of this genus 
were also passengers that night and sought to make 
themselves as intimate as might be with the chief magis- 
trate of the nation. The Admiral, in full uniform, even 
accompanied the President to the Coliseum, the place in 
which the jubilee was held, and for simple sensation his 
presence on that occasion quite surpassed that of General 
Grant. It was this episode that won for him the title of 
"Jim Jubilee." 

This line of steamers was his plaything for the season 
of 1869, but of course it grew stale, lacking in novelty and 
excitement, by the end of the summer, and something new 
must be had. When the season of 1870 opened he com- 
pletely eclipsed all his previous achievements in the 
steamboat line by adding the " Plymouth Eock " to his 
flotilla. This new steamer is 345 feet long and of up- 
wards of 5,000 tuns burden. She had been almost com- 
pletely rebuilt to his order during the winter. She con- 
tains thirty-two suites of apartments that rival New 
York's finest hotel for elegance and comfort. The res- 
taurant dining-room is equally marvellous for the charac- 
ter of its supplies and cuisine. The bar-room is of a 



188 A FLOATING PALACE. 

size and elegance rarely equalled in any establishment on 
terra firm a, being extensively finished in white marble, 
with large mirrors and all the usual appurtenances in the 
most improved style. Nothing so gorgeous and extensive 
was ever before attempted in the way of a steamer. The 
furniture throughout is of the richest and most elegant 
style, the gilding, embellishments, bronzes, etc., surpass- 
ing in profusion and luxuriance anything to be met with 
by a traveller anywhere else in the world. While walk- 
ing through its saloons and cabins it is almost impossible 
to avoid the delusion that you are in some grand hotel 
furnished with oriental splendor. In fact the steamer 
was intended for a sort of floating hotel. She was spe- 
cially designed to accommodate the summer travel to 
Long Branch — of late the most famous of our seaside 
watering places. She runs from New York to Sandy 
Hook, and was designed to afford first-class accommoda- 
tions for those who might wish to go on board in the 
afternoon, use a suite of apartments for dressing, take 
dinner on board, drive to the hotels to any ball or enter- 
tainment in the evening, return to their apartments on the 
steamer to sleep, and wake up in New York next 
morning. 

This grand floating palace was Mr. Fisk's new sensa- 
tion for the season of 1870. On Sundays he often used 
her for a pleasure excursion up the Hudson. On these 
occasions she was crowded by people seeking a day of 
leisure enjoyment, and it is difficult to imagine a greater 



SUNDAY TRIPS UP THE HUDSON. 189 

combination of delightful influences and pleasures than 
that afforded by this palatial steamer gliding up the 
lovely Hudson on a beautiful summer's morning, amid 
scenery unsurpassed in grandeur by any in the world, 
replete with the historic interest that clings around Wash- 
ington, Benedict Arnold, and Andre, the Palisades and 
Highlands echoing the strains of sweet music from the 
band on board. The trip was to Poughkeepsie, 75 miles, 
and back. On these excursions Mr. Fisk was present in 
his Admiral's uniform, smiling blandly upon everybody 
and playing the host with the proverbial good nature and 
affability of the man who " knows how to keep a hotel." 

In the summer of 1869, when the Erie offices were 
moved to the Grand Opera House, Mr. Fisk also estab- 
lished a new ferry from the Erie depot in Jersy City to 
23d Street, and a free line of omnibuses from the ferry, 
past the Grand Opera House, to the Fifth Avenue Hotel. 
The two boats placed upon this ferry of course surpassed 
in elegance everything used on any of the other ferries. 
They are named "James Fisk, Jr.,' 1 ' and "Jay Gould" 
and are in entire keeping with the rest of Admiral Fisk's 
flotilla. 



CHAPTER XI. 

ALBANY & SUSQUEHANNA KAILROAD WAB MB. FI8X COM- 
MENCES HIS TWENTY-SIXTH EAID AND GETS HUSTLED DOWN 

STAIBS OPPOSING EECEIVEBS AND OPPOSING JUDGES THE 

TWO PABTIES IN COLLISION A BIOT THE MILITIA CALLED 

OUT THE GOVEENOB INTEBFEBES FLIGHT TO NEW YORK 

ERIE BEATEN. 

After seventeen years of desperate struggle for exist- 
ence, through repeated discouragements and many sus- 
pensions of work upon its construction, the Albany & 
Susquehanna Railroad was finally completed in January, 
1869. The one man who had stood by it and worked 
unceasingly for it from the beginning, whose faith and 
courage had not faltered under the seventeen years of 
trial nor slackened in the least while all the rest of its 
original friends and many new relays had fallen by the 
way and abandoned the project, the man who had pushed 
it through all its discouragements to final completion, was 
Joseph H. Ramsey. It is not too much to say that but 
for his energy, determination and perseverance, the road 
would not be in existence to-day. He was now its 



STEUGGLING FOB. EXISTENCE. 191 

president. The road runs diagonally across the State of 
New York from Albany on the Hudson to Binghamton 
on the Susquehanna, in Broome County. Here it meets 
the Erie. The road had been projected and built as a 
purely local enterprise to benefit the towns through which 
it ran, and for this reason it had received some aid from 
the State and the towns along the line had subscribed for 
some of the stock. In its later stages the Governor had 
vetoed all bills for giving it further assistance. Many of 
those who had originally subscribed for the stock, after 
paying in a certain per cent, of their subscription, had 
failed to pay the remainder and in consequence of this' 
failure their stock was declared forfeited to the company. 
The subscribers consented to this forfeiture and seemed 
glad to get rid of the stock in that way. It was by using 
this forfeited stock as collateral security for a loan that 
Mr. Ramsey had obtained funds to complete the last 
section of the road. It was against the law to issue stock 
at less than par, but this being stock that had been 
already issued and forfeited, it was deemed legal to 
re-issue it for less than par. 

But as soon as all the difficulties were surmounted and 
the road was finished, it was found to be of great value 
for more than local use. If run in connection with the 
Erie road it formed the necessary connecting link to 
render that road a rival of the New York Central for the 
through business between New England and the West ; 
but it was of still greater value in affording the great 



192 DIVIDED COUNCILS. 

anthracite coal regions of Northeastern Pennsylvania a 
more direct communication with New England and the 
country north from Albany, and as such was destined to 
destroy a very profitable part of the business of the 
branch of the Erie road running to Newburgh. 

As is always the case when an energetic, determined, 
persevering man pushes a great enterprise through to 
success, Mr. Ramsey had made some opponents, not to 
say enemies, during the seventeen years of determined 
perseverance, and now, during the first year of its through 
operation, he found nearly one half of the board of 
directors sullenly opposed to him. He is not a man of 
half-way measures or entangling compromises and has 
no taste for a house divided against itself ; it was therefore 
distinctly understood that at the next election either he or 
his opponents must go out and an entirely harmonious 
board be elected. Mr. Eamsey's opponents well knew 
what the result of such a contest would be if they did not 
secure the assistance of some outside power much stronger 
than themselves, and therefore invited the Erie road, or 
Messrs. Fisk and Gould, to undertake the battle for them. 
As these gentlemen were already coveting this road as 
a great prize to possess in connection with Erie, they 
eagerly accepted the invitation, and Mr. Ramsey suddenly 
found himself confronted by the men who had beaten 
Vanderbilt and Drew, had had everything their own way 
in the Courts and Legislature for a year, and who now had 
all the resources of Erie and Tammany Hall behind them. 



BUYING UP THE STOCK. 193 

The control of the election necessitated a control of a 
majority of stock, and herein Mr. Ramsey felt reasonably 
secure, despite all the resources and power of his new an- 
tagonists. He knew he could command a majority of 
the floating stock and he felt quite as secure about the 
stock held by the towns along the road. This stock the 
towns were not permitted to sell for less than par, cash 
down. As the nominal value of the stock was only 20 
cents on the dollar, there seemed no likelihood of the 
towns getting par for their stock and there was no doubt 
that if they held the stock they would vote on it for Mr. 
Ramsey against the men whose principles had been made 
manifest in connection with Erie the past year. Under 
the purchases made by the Erie party to get control, the 
small amount of floating stock rose quickly from 20 to 40, 
50 and 65. Still Mr. Ramsey felt secure of a majority till 
he heard that agents of his opponents were out among the 
towns on the road offering par in cash for the stock held 
by the towns. In one or two instances the extraordinary 
offer proved too tempting and was accepted. Under the 
competition thus excited the stock held by towns suddenly 
rose to a premium. But Messrs. Fisk and Gould did not 
care to spend so much money as would be required to 
obtain a majority of the stock at prices above par when 
they knew it must fall back to 20 or near it immediately 
after election, and consequently bethought themselves of 
means to compass their purpose without the use of capital. 
The officers of some of the towns owning the stock were 



194 HEADS I WIN, TAIL8 YOU LOSE. 

invited down to New York and entertained most hos- 
pitably and an arrangement very nice for Messrs. Fisk and 
Gould was made on the heads-I-win-tails-you-lose plan. 
An agreement was made that the stock should be taken 
of the towns at par after the election, provided that at the 
election the officers would vote as Mr. Fisk wished. For 
the fulfilment of this agreement the town officers had the 
private bond of Messrs. Fisk and Gould. The latter gen- 
tlemen probably were well aware that, as the town officers 
had no power to sell except for cash down, this agreement 
was wholly illegal and could not be enforced against them 
after they had secured the votes in their favor. 

On the 3d of August considerable of the stock held by 
the towns was presented for transfer. The treasurer at 
once transferred all stock which he thought had been 
actually purchased and paid for, whether by the Erie or 
Ramsey party ; but he refused to transfer such stock as 
he suspected had been bought only by bargain, under the 
convenient arrangement patched up in New York. The 
next day a war of injunctions commenced. The Erie 
party got an injunction from Judge Barnard in New York 
forbidding any vote to be cast on the forfeited stock that 
had been re-issued and was held as collateral security for 
a loan to the company. On the same day Mr. Eamsey 
got an injunction from Judge Parker at Owego for- 
bidding the transfer of stock held by the towns of 
Oneonta and Worcester. The next day, August 5th, Mr. 
Shearman, the lawyer of the Erie party, went to Owego 



INJUNCTIONS. 195 

and got the injunction obtained by Mr. Ramsey removed 
and then elsewhere obtained an order commanding the 
transfer that had been forbidden the day before. En- 
couraged by so much success, a bolder step was taken. 
An order was obtained restraining Mr. Ramsey from 
acting as an officer of the road. With Mr. Ramsey in 
the board, it was equally divided ; his removal therefore 
placed his opponents in the majority and as the vice- 
president was in the interest of the Erie party this move 
gave them a great advantage, putting them in possession 
of the transfer books and enabling them to make the 
transfers to their own liking. But Mr. Ramsey did not 
surrender quietly. An angry assertion of conflicting 
rights prevailed all day at the offices of the company in 
Albany, and became so serious that the police had to be 
called in to preserve order and prevent the two parties 
from coming to a trial of muscular strength to determine 
which should hold possession. Night put an end to this 
angry growl, but Mr. Ramsey knew the opponents he had 
to deal with and that immediate, decisive measures were 
necessary to foil them. Therefore he improved the even- 
ing. It was felt on both sides that possession of the 
transfer books greatly increased the chances of success for 
the party holding them, as they were to be closed on the 
7th and it was now the evening of the 5th. Accordingly 
Mr. Ramsey had the books removed from the office that 
night and when his enemies came in next morning the 
prize they most coveted in getting possession was not to 



196 STOCK LEDGERS SPIRITED AWAT. 

be found. Many were the wild goose chases made to 
regain possession of these books. They were heard of, 
now in Pittsfield, out of the State, now in Troy only six 
miles away, then in Schenectedy ; but on the arrival of 
officers at the place where rumor had last placed them, 
they were found to be quite as far off in some other di- 
rection and the pursuit was like seeking the gold at the 
end of the rainbow. A great point was attempted to be 
made against Mr. Ramsey for the abstraction of the books 
in this manner, his opponents crying out against the dis- 
honesty, violation of power and rights, and dread of 
justice, implied in the act. And another step served 
them still better to the same effect. The night the books 
were removed, Mr. Ramsey got several of his friends to 
subscribe for considerable sums of the stock of the com- 
pany which had not yet been taken up, he promising to 
provide for the 1 per cent, of the price which was to be 
paid in immediately in order to enable them to have the 
stock entered in their names. This of course was not a 
bona fide subscription, but was resorted to as a means of 
controling the election. As such it made Mr. Ramsey 
obnoxious to the charge of unfair and lawless acts, and he 
made his position in this respect still weaker by the means 
taken to secure the necessary 10 per cent, of the sub- 
scription money. He took the equipment bonds of the 
company and pledged them as collateral security for a 
loan. This was exceeding any power that he ever could 
have had, and his enemies were not slow to seize the 



THE ROAD LEFT WITHOUT A HEAD. 197 

handle thus afforded them. So immeasurably superior to 
his opponents was the strength of Mr. Ramsey's position 
in the matter of personal character, business and social 
standing, that charges from them against his integrity fell 
like peas pelted at the Rocky Mountains ; but in the 
excitement of the hour they tended somewhat to damage 
and weaken his position. 

But the Erie party were not left to exercise their 
power long, though the books, the most valuable part of 
the corporation for their immediate purpose, had been 
removed beyond their reach. The next morning, the 
6th, just as they were getting ready to exercise their 
newly acquired functions, an injunction was obtained 
and served upon them by the Ramsey party, restraining 
them from acting as officers of the corporation. The 
road was thus left without a head or management. 
This new move was immediately telegraphed to the 
Grand Opera House in New York. Mr. Shearman was 
there at Mr. Fisk's side and immediately saw the legal 
aspect of the situation. The corporation being left 
without officers, an order must be obtained appointing a 
receiver to take charge of the road. Mr. Shearman 
immediately set about preparing the papers necessary to 
obtain the desired order. A judge must be had to grant 
the order. There were three judges of the First District 
in the city, while the fourth was absent in Poughkeepsie, 
at the bedside of his dying mother. There were judges 
of the Second District to be found in Brooklyn in case of 



198 FISK APPOINTED RECEIVER. 

need. But there seemed some magic virtue in the orders 
of the one absent judge, consequently he was summoned 
from his dying mother by telegraph and came down to 
New York. This was Judge George G. Barnard. The 
papers were not ready till ten o'clock at night. At that 
hour the judge who had come down from Poughkeepsie for 
the purpose was so near at hand and was so quick to per- 
ceive the merits of the case that fifteen minutes or there- 
abouts sufficed for the whole process of taking the papers to 
him, obtaining a hearing and securing his signature to the 
document. The receivers appointed for this important 
trust were James Fisk, Jr. ! and Mr. Courter. 

Equipped with Judge Barnard's order, Mr. Fisk and 
party left for Albany by the eleven o'clock p. m. train to 
assume the delicate responsibility ; but on arriving there 
in the morning they found the Ramsey party had been 
as quick as themselves to understand the situation and 
had had the Hon. R. H. Pruyn appointed receiver a few 
minutes earlier than Mr. Fisk received his authority. 
When Judge Barnard's receivers went to the offices to 
take possession they found them already held by the 
opposing receiver's representatives, with Mr. Van Vaulk- 
enburg in command. Mr. Fisk introduced himself to 
Mr. Van Vaulkenburg and announced his mission. The 
gentleman in possession intimated that he did not propose 
to surrender the trust of which he had been put in 
charge. Thereupon Mr. Fisk turned to the choice band 
of supporters he had brought up from New York with 



ME. FISK HUSTLED DOWN STAIES. 199 

him and said, " Come on, boys !" Then, addressing 
himself to Mr. Van Vaulkenburg, he continued, " this is 
my twenty-sixth raid and I'm going to take you fellows 
if it costs a million dollars." With these words he and 
his " boys " proceeded to take possession and oust the 
occupants by force ; but this attempt took a very unex- 
pected turn and Mr. Fisk and his " boys " got hustled 
down stairs with a haste that paid no regard to ceremony, 
Mr. Van Vaulkenburg proving to be a man of such 
muscular activity that Mr. Fisk instead of " taking you 
fellows," suddenly brought up on the sidewalk with his 
spruce attire and toilet in a rather disordered condition. 
He had hardly had time to adjust his hat properly, when 
a fussy little man stepped up and marched him off to the 
station house for creating a disturbance. On reaching 
police headquarters Mr. Fisk was released and found that 
the little man who had marched him off so promptly was 
not a policeman at all, but an employe of the railroad 
and a supporter of Mr. Ramsey. 

Such an ignominious and ludicrous result of the first 
move in his twenty-sixth raid might well have afflicted 
Mr. Fisk with a little chagrin and disturbed his temper ; 
but he seemed to appreciate the comic element of the pro- 
ceeding quite as fully as any one, so lively is his sense of 
the ridiculous and humorous, and on being set free at the 
station house he immediately returned to the offices from 
which he had been so summarily ejected and actually led 
his opponents in venting humor at his own expense over 



200 ADMIRATION FOE A MAN OF MUSCLE. 

the episode in which he came out at the little end of the 

horn. To Mr. Van Vaulkenburg who had so kindly 

assisted in his hasty exit he was especially pleasant and 

facetious and saluted him in the poetic spirit, 

" Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love, 
But why did you kick me down stairs p" 

He seated himself upon a table, swinging his feet be- 
neath after the manner of the evening gathering in a 
country variety store, and in that situation he manifested 
his high admiration for manly strength of character and 
muscle by complimenting Mr. Van Vaulkenburg, saying 
he had never before met a man who dared face him and 
do his duty in that way and that he wanted just such a 
man in his employ. He further proposed that, instead of 
any more fuss of this kind, himself and Mr. Eamsey 
should play a game of " seven up " to determine which 
should have possession of the road. 

When Mr. Fisk got back to the scene of his rout he 
found that Mr. Pruyn had arrived and was now in pos- 
session in propria persona, so the two opposing receivers 
met face to face and each claimed to be in possession. The 
news of the affair of the morning was immediately tele- 
graphed to New York and upon the strength of the 
telegram Mr. Shearman made a new affidavit and obtained 
from Judge Barnard a new injunction forbidding every- 
body from interfering with receivers Fisk and Courter and 
also granting an absolute " writ of assistance " empower- 
ing the sheriff to impress the whole posse comitatus into 



BARNARD S INJUNCTIONS BY TELEGRAPH. 



201 



His service to execute this last injunction. This new in- 
junction and writ were telegraphed to Albany and about 
three o'clock p. m. the sheriff actually attempted to pro- 
ceed upon authority purporting to have been obtained 
from New York, based upon acts that had occurred in 
Albany only five hours previous. The authority was con- 
temptously disregarded. A counterblast was fired in the 
shape of an order for the arrest of Mr. Fisk for contempt 
of Court in interfering with its officer, Receiver Pruyn. 
This closed the active hostilities of the day and it being 
now evident that no crisis or decision could be reached, 
a truce till nine o'clock Monday morning was agreed upon 
and the two opposing chiefs withdrew, each leaving depu- 
ties behind to maintain the situation in statu quo till the 
hour appointed. 

Mr. Fisk left immediately for New York to receive 
instructions from his legal guides and get the original 
copy of Judge Barnard's last injunction and the writ of 
assistance. With these and a retinue of a dozen or fifteen 
"boys" he departed for the front again Sunday evening, 
determined on a brilliant coup de grace in his first charge 
on the morrow. He presented himself at the scene of 
action Monday morning but was completely surprised by 
his adversary's crying "check!" before he had made a 
single move. During his sojourn at the Grand Opera 
House, the Ramsey party had obtained a new injunction re- 
straining everybody from interfering with Receiver Pruyn 
and expressly enjoining sheriffs from proceeding to any 



202 FISK AND BARNAKD FLANKED. 

measures on the authority of the writ of assistance. A 
train with forty or fifty Ramsey men and Mr. Smith as 
legal adviser, was early started from Albany, serving this 
injunction on sheriffs and installing deputies of Receiver 
Pruyn as they went. Mr. Fisk thus found himself effect- 
ually foiled and the situation looked very unfavorable for 
his prospects. But a consultation was held with his 
lawyers and advisers, and a brilliant device was hit upon 
for bringing matters to a dead lock and the road to a 
stand still. As his enemies were now in possession of the 
Albany end of the road beyond the power of removal 
except by actual force, he determined to get possession of 
as much of . the other end as possible, so that while his 
opponents governed the head he might hang on by the 
tail. There was but one way of accomplishing this now 
most desirable object. The power of his opponent was 
extending toward Binghamton as fast as steam could take 
it and nothing but electricity could get there ahead of it. 
Accordingly, he telegraphed his orders, injunctions and 
writs of assistance to Binghamton, where Erie is much 
more of a power than at Albany, and there he met with 
better success than where he was personally present. 
Men were found ready and eager to do his bidding and 
under his telegraphed orders and documents the Bing- 
hamton end of the road was immediately taken possession 
of in his name as receiver. An Erie superintendent was 
placed in charge. A train standing at the station ready 
to start was not permitted to proceed till an Erie engine 



THE BINGHAMTON END 8EIZED BY TELEGRAPH. 203 

had been substituted, an Erie conductor placed in charge, 
and an Erie sheriff was on board to distribute Erie in- 
junctions and writs of assistance and replace all employes 
by Erie sympathizers, wherever the train stopped. There 
were four Albany and Susquehanna engines at Bingham- 
ton. The sheriff of Erie got possession of three of them 
and was riding down the track on one of those he had 
captured to secure the fourth, when the engineer of the 
latter suddenly moved a switch in such a way as to send 
the sheriff and the engine bearing him off the track, then 
jumped quickly upon his own, let on the steam and made 
good time towards Albany. 

The doings of the Erie men at Binghamton had been 
telegraphed to Albany and Mr. Van Vaulkenburg was at 
length fully roused and determined on the most decisive 
measures. Mr. Eisk had not been permitted to enter the 
Albany & Susquehanna offices at all that day, but his 
deputy and brother receiver, Mr. Courter, had remained 
since Saturday to assert possession for the Fisk party. 
When news of the proceedings at Binghamton arrived 
and fired Mr. Van Vaulkenburg's will, he immediately 
notified Mr. Courter that the farce of his pretended pos- 
session had gone far enough and that he must leave the 
premises at once. The experience of Saturday morning 
being fresh in Mr. Courter's memory, he deemed it best 
to go without assistance and retired, though under 
protest. Mr. Van Vaulkenburg then telegraphed along 
the road ordering his trains to stop where they were. 



204 DETERMINED STEPS OT MR. VAN VAI'J.KENBURG. 

The train that left Albany in the morning had reached 
Harpersville, twenty-five miles from Binghamton, when, 
hearing of the situation at the latter place, they decided 
not to proceed and fell back to Bainbridge, thirty-six 
miles from Binghamton and there waited further develop- 
ments. 

The afternoon train from Binghamton, thoroughly 
transformed into an Erie establishment, proceeded on its 
way, sheriff aboard, and put the road into Erie hands as 
it went. When they reached Afton, thirty miles from 
Binghamton, they Avere met by a telegram from Mr. 
Van Vaulkenburg warning them that any further 
advance would be at their peril. They therefore halted 
and telegraphed for further instructions from Mr. Fisk 
at Albany. They received a peremptory order to proceed 
and accordingly started again. It was now late in the 
night and they advanced with much caution, feeling their 
way as they went, to see that no bridge had been 
destroyed or rails torn up by their adversaries. The 
Eamsey party had with them a patent " frog," designed 
to get displaced cars on to the track, but it now occurred 
to some one that it was equally well adapted to throwing 
them off. This they fixed to a rail and then took up a 
position on a side track to await the enemy's approach. 
The Erie party came in sight of the Bainbridge station 
and, all dangerous places being passed, they moved on 
more boldly and unsuspiciously when, just before reach- 
ing the station, they suddenly became conscious of 



AN ERIE PARTY MADE PRISONERS. 205 

something irregular and found themselves off the track. 
The Ramsey train now immediately moved up on to the 
main track behind them and they were prisoners. The 
Eamsey party gallantly helped them out of their car, 
and finding themselves captured they quietly surren- 
dered. 

Emboldened by success, the Ramsey party now re- 
solved to advance and started once more towards Bing- 
hamton early .Tuesday morning. They removed the 
Erie men placed in charge the previous day and restored 
the former employes. All went smoothly till they 
reached a spot known as "the Tunnel," about fifteen 
miles from Binghamton. The tunnel is some two hun- 
dred feet long, on the brow of a hill, and is approached 
from either side by a steep up grade and over a sharply 
curving track. On reaching this point at about 10 a. m. 
they received news of a new Erie train that had come up 
from Binghamton with several hundred men to give 
them battle. At this intelligence they halted and the two 
hostile bands stood on the opposite sides of the tunnel all 
day reconnoitering and preparing, neither party appar- 
ently daring to attack. The Fisk party was composed of 
employes of the Erie road and work-shops and was in- 
creased during the day by the arrival of new trains bring- 
ing up men and provisions, till their forces numbered 
about eight hundred. But their very numbers told against 
them. Without discipline, organization or conscious 
purpose, with no acknowledged commanders, they were a 



206 OPPOSING FORCES MEET AT THE TUNNEL. 

mere unwieldy mob, to whom fifty men with an ac- 
knowledged leader would have been infinitely superior. 
The Eamsey company was also reinforced during the day 
by the arrival of another train from Albany and by the 
gathering of sympathizers from the vicinity and now 
numbered about four hundred, or one half the party on 
the other side of the tunnel. Besides being fewer in 
number, which in this case was doubtless an advantage, 
the men directing their movements were- gentlemen of 
such personal force and character as to establish some- 
thing like organization among them, and, still more, they 
were all inspired by a definite principle and strong feel- 
ing, a unifying and strengthening element in which their 
opponents were entirely lacking. At last, after such 
feeble preparation as was possible under the circum- 
stances, and under imperative orders by telegraph from 
commander Fisk at Albany to commence offensive opera- 
tions, the Erie party decided to advance and took the 
initiative about seven o'clock in the evening. Their chief 
reliance seems to have been upon the amount of momen- 
tum they could get up, and this was undoubtedly the one 
point in which they were strongest ; but since Csezar's day 
mere momentum, as a determining element in warfare has 
dwindled in importance as against scientific manoeuvreing 
much more than these improvised warriors seem to have 
been conscious of. However, as this was their best if not 
their only weapon, it was probably the part of wisdom to 
adopt it since they were under peremptory commands to 



ERIE OFFERS BATTXE. 207 

advance. Their philosophy seems to have been to load a 
train as heavily as possible and set it going, trusting to 
luck for all the rest. They put together the heaviest train 
they could make up, filled it with men (though for what 
purpose does not appear, unless for their weight and to 
dispose of them somehow) and started it through the 
long tunnel. With hearts trembling in trepidation, more 
from the darkness and the utter indefiniteness of purpose 
than from any apprehended harm, these crusaders moved 
cautiously through the tunnel, emerged upon the Albany 
side and halted to take breath. They found a single rail 
removed by their opponents. This was replaced and once 
more they moved forward, having now a down grade. 
The Ramsey men had been warned of the approach and 
were not afraid even to try momentum as the first move, 
probably conscious that this could determine nothing and 
only serve as a signal for further operations depending 
much more upon skill, organization, and commanders, in 
which they felt superior. Accordingly when the rail was 
replaced and the attacking train was advancing again, the 
Ramsey train started, too, puffing up the hill most de- 
terminedly, bent on mischief. The Erie train moving 
slowly down the hill, turned a sharp corner and suddenly 
became aware of the approach of their enemy under full 
headway with the manifest intention of a collision. Per- 
haps the Erie men had "sogered" under McClellan, for 
they had evidently expected to go through this war with- 
out hurting anybody. The sudden prospect of danger 



208 COLLISION AND BOUT. 

therefore took them wholly by surprise and threw them 
into the greatest consternation. The conductor swung 
his hat and gesticulated frantically to induce the Ramsey 
train to stop. The engineer instantly whistled "down 
brakes ! " then whistled the signal of danger and reversed 
his engine. The Ramsey engineer merely whistled " get 
out of the way ! " steamed ahead with his full strength, 
and smash ! went the two engines into each other. The 
shock and panic to Erie was complete. The men leaped 
from the train and without stopping to see what had 
happened " skedaddled " for the Binghamton side of the 
tunnel with their utmost speed, some running through the 
tunnel, others over the hill above it, each going like an 
Olympian runner, as if life depended upon reaching the 
other end, affording one of the most unique and amusing 
foot races ever witnessed. Their engine and train partici- 
pated in the hasty retreat, and backed up to the home side 
of the tunnel. The Ramsey men, having intended the col- 
lision, were not in the least disturbed or demoralized, but 
were perfectly self-possessed and set upon the Erie men 
with shouts, and sticks and stones as they jumped from 
their cars in a panic, and pursued them a short distance 
in their flight. 

As the Erie train was moving slowly, reversed the 
engine and put on the brakes the moment danger was 
foreseen, and as the grade was too heavy for the Ramsey 
train to get up much speed, the collision did little damage 
beyond smashing the cow-catcher and headlights and 



PURSUIT OF ERIE FUGITIVES. 209 

throwing the Ramsey engine partially off the track. 
The power of locomotion was not destroyed in either. 
The Ramsey men set immediately to work to replace 
their engine upon the track and then, resolving to follow 
up their success, pushed on through the tunnel. But on 
emerging they found the time spent in getting their 
engine upon the track had sufficed to arrest the course of 
the fugitives, allay their panic, and gather them into a 
more disorganized mob than ever. They stood crowded 
together ready in turn to dispute any further advance. 
The Ramsey train therefore halted and the two parties 
stood facing each other at a safe distance apart. The 
scene was now much like that often presented by the 
boys of two cities on opposite sides of a river meeting on 
the ice for a championship fight. Each party stood, as 
it were, with a chip on its shoulder and bravely dared 
the other to come and knock it off. The war was 
hardly more than one of words, but in this respect it 
perhaps stands unequalled. Many of the Erie men had 
indulged quite freely in " fire water " to get up some 
" Dutch courage " and the vollies of profanity and coarse 
denunciation poured in upon their adversaries was 
revolting in the extreme. As in the boy fights, some of 
the more bold and venturesome characters on either side 
stepped out a few paces in front of the rest and indulged 
in a little skirmishing. Sticks and stones were thrown, 
a few hand to hand fights occurred, and a few random 
pistol shots were fired. The Ramsey party were much 

H 



210 THE MILITIA CALLKD OUT. 

the most exasperated and in earnest, so the Erie men 
sustained nearly all the injuries and rested all their 
laurels on the capture of one prisoner. One of the 
Ramsey men advanced so boldly that he suddenly found 
himself separated from his comrades and his retreat cut 
off. He ran behind a freight car for refuge and was 
there surrounded by a large party who now heroically 
captured him, kicked and cuffed him, and proposed to 
kill him. At length he was recognized as an acquaint- 
ance by one of the captors, who proposed to make him 
a prisoner instead of killing him and the suggestion was 
adopted. He was placed under a strong guard but the 
watch over him gradually grew careless and at half past 
eleven he succeeded in making his escape from durance 
vile, but only to wander about all night in a vain effort 
to rejoin his comrades. 

Matters had assumed such a serious aspect in the 
afternoon that the civil authorities of Broome County had 
despaired of being able to maintain order and called 
upon the military for assistance. In obedience to this 
request the 44th l'egiment was called out and reached 
the scene of disorder about eight o'clock, when the 
shouting and oaths had grown hideous in the night and 
the riot was growing quite serious. At the sound of its 
drums the Ramsey men retreated through the tunnel 
with their train, left a freight car off the track inside the 
tunnel, tore up a few rails, and then fell back to Harpers- 
ville for the night, firing a few bridges as they went. 



PUBLIC DEM0NSTBAT10NS. 211 

Only two of the Erie men had been hit by pistol shots 
and only a few more had been hurt at all seriously, 
while the report of the Ramsey party was, " nobody 
hurt." Thus ended a riot combining so many of the 
worst elements of a mob as to make it a great wonder that 
it proved so harmless. 

Excitement over the riot and the whole situation had 
now spread throughout the State, was all absorbing 
along the line of the road, and culminated at Albany, 
the headquarters of both parties. The Governor had 
been summoned from a pleasure sojourn at the Catskills 
to take action upon the situation, a feeling of insecurity 
existed everywhere between Albany and Binghamton, 
and marked public demonstrations were everywhere made. 
When the engine that dodged the sheriff at Binghamton 
and the train that was captured at Bainbridge, arrived 
in Albany they were received with the most enthusiastic 
demonstrations by a large crowd of citizens ; wherever 
Erie men or sympathizers appeared in the neighborhood 
of the riot they were treated to a shower of opprobrious 
epithets by the women and children and requested to 
" clear out ; " and everywhere the feeling seemed unani- 
mous in favor of Mr. Eamsey and decidedly bitter against 
Erie. To all this Mr. Eisk manifested characteristic in- 
difference and on Tuesday afternoon there appeared in 
the papers a letter from him in which he said : 

" Quick sharp work and so much to be done on a 
stamping ground new to me, left me only to feel that the 



212 A KIP VAN WINKLE SLEEP. 

great majority of the good people of Albany were 
running away with a wrong idea of our side of the 
question and overlooked the great benefits and advan- 
tages we were bringing to their doors. . . I should 
suppose the people of this good city would welcome us 
with open arms. Look at the past. Has not everything 
been done by the Central line to make you a mere local 
station, to ruin your shipping and wipe out your instru- 
ments of business and leave you with nothing on hand 
but pleasure all the time, which is very tiresome — or 
rather to leave you a Rip Van Winkle sleep ? . . . Mr. 
Ramsey and myself have long been friends and nothing 
but the welfare of the great interests involved would 
have brought me in collision with him. I have the 
highest regard for him, barring my opinion of him as a 
railroad manager. I am sorry that he stands to-day 
between the interests of the people and our corporation. 
There can be but one result, and that will be free 
admission to us in Albany. For all we ask we give you 
four-fold in return. The star of the Albany & Susque- 
hanna road, as a mere local road, has set. It must now 
be part of the great thoroughfare from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. . . It is evident the hostility to our interests 
is stimulated by those in the interest of the Central. . . 
The interest of the Erie is to run it ; the interest of the 
Central is to discontinue it. . . It is not a question of 
to-day but of the future, and I think my holding out 
powers will last with those who are opposed to me. I 
ask no advantage to which my case does not entitle me. 
Give Mr. Ramsey the advantages of every doubt and 
what is left will waft us on to victory." 

The evening after this letter appeared in print a large 



MR. PISK MAKES A NEW DEMAND. 213 

public meeting was held in Albany at which, speeches 
were made by Mr. Ramsey and several other eminent 
citizens, and nowhere (save in one suite of rooms at the 
Delavan House) was there anything but the strongest 
feeling in favor of the Ramsey side. 

During the day which culminated in the riot at Tunnel 
Station 3 the usual programme had been repeated at 
Albany. The morning brought a new injunction and a 
new writ of assistance from Judge Barnard, designed to 
disarm the proceedings of Judge Peckham of the day 
before. Matters had now, however, got to such a pass 
that these documents were of little consequence except as 
a sort of feminine contest to see which should have the 
last word.- Nevertheless, being devoid of any other amuse- 
ment, Messrs. Fisk and Courter approached the Albany 
& Susquehanna offices in a carriage that afternoon and 
demanded possession. Of course Mr. Van Vaulkenburg 
regarded the demand as a very good joke and answered 
it simply with a smile that showed an appreciation' of the 
comic element in Mr. Fisk's character. The Barnard 
receivers had so little confidence of the success of their 
mission that they did not deem it worth while to get out of 
their carriage. Mr. Fisk merely pointed to a bundle of pa- 
pers sticking out of his pocket as he lay back in his barouche 
and looking up to the windows with a cigar in his mouth 
said, " Here's an order and writ of assistance from 
friend Barnard, fresh up from New York, and it tells me 
to take possession." Mr. Van Vaulkenburg merely 



214 ROMEO IN THE BALCONY SCENE. 

looked down from the window and smiled at the humorous 
man. There was no more of the " I'm going to take you 
fellows if it costs a million dollars " style or tone in this 
last demand. All that was gone and Mr. Fisk seemed to 
have come direct from " kissing the blarney stone." He 
lay there at ease in his carriage and looked up at Mr. 
Van Vaulkenburg as Romeo looks up at Juliet in the 
balcony scene, and in tones as soft as a lover's assured 
Mr. Van Vaulkenburg that if he would only yield obeis- 
ence to " them documents " from Judge Barnard he 
should be splendidly fixed for life and have a high seat 
beside the divinities that preside over the Grand Opera 
House, the Erie treasury, the Narraganset Steamship 
Company or Tammany Hall. While the kind-hearted 
man was thus cooing in the svaviter in modo style and 
harmlessly amusing " you fellows " with a most humorous 
scene, he was suddenly set upon by the police, who 
arrested him on a warrant from Judge Clute for a con- 
spiracy against the public peace and order in attempting 
to take possession of the Albany & Susquehanna rail- 
road offices by force. He turned his eyes from Mr. Van 
Vaulkenburg to the police with a most comical expression 
on his countenance, looked at them a moment in a puz- 
zled way, then said, " All right ! Git in here !" took the 
policemen who had arrested him into his carriage and 
said. " Proceed, driver ! Good-bye, Van Vaulkenburg. 
Come and see me if you git a chance and bring along 
something good to eat." Thus the afternoon's drive and 



MB. FTSK IN THE HANDS OF THE POLICE. 215 

entertainment of his rivals with a little amusement ended 
in being ignominously marched off under arrest and taken 
into the presence of Judge Clute'as a culprit. He imme- 
diately gave bail, however, and was released from custody 
and returned to the Delavan House to tell the outrages 
and indignities that had been perpetrated upon him and 
make himself a great hero by giving his minions and re- 
tainers a graphic description of a most dastardly attempt 
to assassinate him. This last story was founded upon a 
rumor that as he approached the Albany & Susquehanna 
offices in the afternoon, so great had grown the exaspera- 
tion against him that two men stood on a balcony armed 
with pistols determined to shoot him and were only pre- 
vented from doing so by the dissuasion of one of their 
friends. With these recitals Mr. Fisk still maintained the 
air of a hero despite the decidedly unfavorable current 
of the day's events for his cause. 

Immediately upon acquainting himself with the con- 
dition of affairs on Tuesday, the Governor notified all 
sheriffs and other officers to take no further proceedings 
in favor of either side, but to maintain matters just as 
they now stood, treating the party in actual possession as 
being there of right, till the Courts should decide between 
the contestants. Each party being now in actual posses- 
sion of one end of the road, of course this order must 
bring its business to a stand still. But the next morning 
brought the details of the riot at the tunnel and the 
Governor now determined on more decisive measures. 



216 THE GOVERNOR TAKES CONTROL OF THE ROAD. 

He at once gave the opposing receivers notice that their 
proceedings must cease and they must come to some 
agreement in the matte'r, or else he should declare the 
district though which the road ran to be in a state of 
insurrection to the State and take possession of the road 
as a military measure and run it as a military road till 
the dispute was settled. The parties held a consultation 
but could come to no agreement and therefore the oppos- 
ing receivers united in a written request to the Governor 
to take possession of the road and run it in the name of 
the State till the legal complications were decided. This 
he consented to do. General James McQuade and Col. 
Robert Lenox Banks were detailed from his staff to take 
possession and conduct the affairs of the road. They 
entered at once upon their new duties and in a day or 
two had all the bridges and rails replaced and the road in 
regular operation again. 

Wednesday morning was Judge Peckham's turn again 
to issue a new order setting aside Barnard's of the day 
before. The Albanians had now come to expect a fresh 
injunction from one or other of the parties every morning 
as being as much a matter of course as their breakfast. 
In this they were not disappointed by the judge upon 
whom they had conferred so many and varied honors. 
He opened the morning in the usual way, staying pro- 
ceedings under the orders from New York the previous 
day and attempting to tie up Mr. Fisk's hands in various 
ways. These matters and the arrangement with the 



A SLIP 'twixt cup AND LIP. 217 

Governor occupied Mr. Fisk's attention till some new pa- 
pers could be obtained from New York. These appeared 
and were ready for use in the afternoon. They were 
non-bailable writs for the arrest of Messrs Pruyn, Ram- 
sey and Van Yaulkenburg for contempt of Judge Bar- 
nard's Court. These gentlemen were all arrested while in 
the Executive Chamber at the Capitol that afternoon and 
the design was to spirit them away to New York and give 
them an inside view of Ludlow Street jail before their 
friends could rally to their rescue. The first part of the 
programme was successfully accomplished, but the parties 
were a little too far from New York city for such an easy 
execution of the second step. A private steamer, the 
"Erastus Corning, Jr.," was chartered for the especial 
purpose or carrying the prisoners to New York, where 
Mr. Fisk would undoubtedly be on much better vantage 
ground for treating them entirely to his pleasure than he 
was in Albany. But before they could be got aboard the 
steamer provided for their accommodation at an expense 
of $500, Judge Clute came to the rescue with a writ of 
habeas corpus. On this they were carried before him 
and he decided to take till the next morning to consider 
the case, but meanwhile they were set free from the 
sheriff in whose hands Judge Barnard's order had placed 
them. This new attempt to spirit distinguished citizens 
into jail therefore proved abortive and the trick now 
returned to plague the author. For while Mr. Fisk 
was eating his dinner at the Delavan House that evening, 



218 MB. FISK FLEES BY SPECIAL 8TEAMEK. 

still vividly portraying the narrow escapes his life had 
passed through in the last two days, a rumor was 
brought in to him that an order similar to Judge Bar- 
nard's had been issued for his own arrest, and that 
the officers were already on their way to secure him. 
On hearing this he jumped up from the table, leaving a 
most tempting piece of steak unfinished, hurried down 
stairs, jumped into a hack and was driven to the bridge, 
whence he boarded the " Erastus Corning, Jr.," and had 
her put under headway for New York at once, thus being 
forced to make good his escape in the vessel hired as a 
sort of prison ship for his enemies and being obliged to 
take the romantic trip down the Hudson as a fugitive 
instead of as triumphant guard over his fallen foe. On 
reaching New York he immediately betook himself 
to the recesses of the Grand Opera House, where his 
"holding out powers" could be exhibited under much 
more favorable circumstances than at Albany, and kept 
very close quarters for a day or two, his ushers being 
instructed to be doubly precautious about admitting any 
one to his presence without special permission. Thus 
ended the first campaign of Mr. Fisk's twenty -sixth raid. 

The fire from the Barnard guns was still kept up for a 
time, however. He was at first very much enraged that 
Judge Clute, having a jurisdiction inferior to his' own, 
should presume to interfere with the execution of one of 
his orders and threatened to arrest Judge Clute himself. 
His ire on this point calmed gradually, as it is wont to 



THE SECOND CAMPAIGN. 219 

do, and Judge Clute was not disturbed in the exercise of 
his judicial functions. But the men whom he had 
rescued by the offensive habeas corpus felt their position 
bo insecure that they betook themselves out of the State 
for safety. Now, however, set in one of those periods 
of peace and good will which is wont to follow when a 
sufficient number of injunctions has been issued to 
appease the love for the exercise and make it impossible 
for the judge himself to keep track of them or bring any 
of them to an issue. By some of the influences know- 
ledge whereof constitutes an occult science, Judge Bar- 
nard became suddenly mollified, declared there was no 
malice in his heart, and the Albany fugitives returned to 
their homes and were permitted to enjoy them in peace. 
Only one further order of consequence was granted by the 
judge. This was an order appointing Wm. J. A. Fuller 
receiver of the stock which was alleged to have been 
illegally re-issued by Mr. Ramsey and others. Under this 
order, supplemented by the resurrected writ of assistance, 
Mr. Fuller obtained possession of some three thousand 
shares of the said illegal stock. 

In this situation the opposing forces now rested on 
their arms to await the annual election of stockholders, 
which was to occur on September 7th, each being confi- 
dent of victory on that day. The requisites for this elec- 
tion, as established by the by-laws of the corporation, 
were : that the polls should be open one hour, from 1 2 to 
1, on the day of election ; no stock to be transferred dur- 



220 LEGAL LEDGERDEMAIN. 

ing the 30 days preceding the election; the inspectors of 
the election should be chosen annually by the stock- 
holders and must themselves be owners of stock ; and the 
stock books of the company must be present for the use of 
the inspectors on the day of election. The abstraction of 
the books had left the Erie party very much in the dark 
as to their relative strength in the amount of stock actu- 
ally held, and feeling far from confident of success by fair 
means a most artful coup de main was planned, which is 
probably without a parallel for a daring outrage in a free, 
civilized country. 

It was discovered that the inspectors who had been 
chosen for this year were not stockholders, as required by 
the by-laws, and so were incompetent to act. An order 
restraining them from acting was therefore perfectly 
proper, and was obtained from Judge Clerke. The 
chosen inspectors being removed, all the plans were laid 
for selecting to act in their places inspectors wholly favor- 
able to the Erie party. To further this purpose as well as 
others, it was desirable to have Mr. Ramsey and all his 
leading supporters out of the way. To compass this end 
a suit was instituted against Messrs. Ramsey, Van Vaulk- 
enburg, Phelps and Smith (their counsel) for abstracting 
the books of the company, and orders for their arrest, 
with bail fixed at a large sum, were asked for. This 
request being on the face of it of a most monstrous char- 
acter, the petitioners took it before Judge Barnard, who 
of course granted it without hesitation. These orders 



EXECUTORS OF BAENAEd's LAW. 221 

were obtained on ex parte representations, without notice 
to the parties against whom they applied, and were kept a 
dead secret till the moment for which they were specially 
designed, the whole success of the plot depending upon 
its being sprung as a surprise at the proper moment. 
Not satisfied with these legal documents, Mr. Fisk, retain- 
ing a vivid memory of Mr. Van Vaulkenburg's muscular 
powers, thought it prudent to take up to the election what 
he, after all, deemed much more potent than the law, and 
what might be much needed to make Barnard's orders 
respected so far from home and at the same time guard* 
him from another ungraceful hustling down stairs and 
hasty flight to New York by special private conveyance. 
Accordingly some fifty New York roughs of the worst 
type, chosen for their especial fitness for the occasion, 
were secured to go to Albany to stand behind Judge 
Barnard's law and Mr. Fisk's dignity and protect the 
sanctity of the Albany & Susquehanna ballot-box. 

Thus armed and equipped with legal documents and 
" tools to do it with," Mr. Fisk with a small army of 
legal advisers, clerks, boon companions, and lackeys, de- 
parted for " the front " once more the day before the 
election, that he might be on the " stamping ground " in 
time to arrange carefully all the details for the last grand 
charge in his "twenty-sixth raid." In his suite of rooms 
at the Delavan House on the night of the 6th and the 
morning of the 7th of September, the whole plan was 
arranged with such precision of detail as to " work like 



222 NBW YORK BOUGHS APPEAR A3 STOCKHOLDERS. 

a clock," and was carefully kept from all knowledge of 
the enemy. The hardy men of muscle, carefully se- 
lected from the eminent social element that rules 
New York city, supplies forces for the State establish- 
ment at Sing Sing and elects the like of Barnard to the 
bench of the Supreme Court, were left to follow by a 
later train and reached Albany on the morning of the 7th, 
the day of the election. The personnel of this unique 
company of New York's masters on appearing in Albany 
has been graphically pictured by Mr. Charles Francis 
Adams, Jr. : 

" A breakfast was negotiated for them at the saloon in 
the station, and there they stood and fed, as rough a set 
of patriots as ever stuffed a ballot-box or hit from the 
shoulder. Some of them had coats and some had not ; 
their clothes were in various stages of dilapidation, as also 
were their countenances ; open shirts displayed muscular 
breasts and rolled up trousers stockingless feet; one man 
saved himself the trouble of rolling up both legs of his 
trousers by having only one . . a class subsequently 
described as men with scarred faces and noses and black 
eyes. Under the circumstances it was little to be won- 
dered at that while they indulged a ' square meal ' the 
keeper of the saloon gave directions to have his silver 
counted." 

After being fed, these choice spirits were each supplied 
with a few proxies of Albany & Susquehanna stock, which 
entitled them to enter the offices of the company as stock- 
holders. Of course Mr. Fisk could have voted himself 
just as well on his own stock, but it was deemed especially 



YEA, VEKILT. 223 

desirable that these delegates from the slums of New- 
York should be present out of respect to Mr. Van Yaul- 
kenburg's much-admired muscular powers, and this was 
the best and only sure means of securing their peaceable 
admission to the room. 

As the hour of noon approached it was time to set the 
ball in motion. All the actors were required to set their 
watches exactly together and each was instructed as to 
the precise second at which he should speak his piece and 
play his part. Mr. Thomas Gr. Shearman, of the eminent 
law firm of Field & Shearman, acted as master of cere- 
monies on the occasion. The improvised stockholders 
were marched from the depot to the poll in due season 
and, proxies in hand, were admitted to the room by the 
police on guard. The inspectors were waylaid on their 
way to the offices a few moments only before the time for 
them to enter upon the discharge of their duties and were 
served with the order forbidding them to act. This was 
a complete surprise, as it was planned to be, and of course 
threw the Eamsey men into a little confusion. At a quar- 
ter before twelve, master of ceremonies Shearman gave 
the nod which was the signal for actor No. 1 to move the 
organization of a meeting of stockholders to elect inspec- 
tors in the place of those removed. The move was 
seconded and carried, the fifty roughs with whom the 
room was packed giving a lusty " aye " when they 
caught the signal "this is the place to laugh." The 
meeting organized, the vote proceed in like manner and 



224 A STRAW HAT BALLOT BOX. 

resulted in the election of inspectors in every respect 
satisfactory to Mr. Fisk. The preliminaries thus all 
successfully carried in their favor, at a few seconds 
past twelve, the hour prescribed by the by-laws, the 
newly chosen inspectors entered upon their duty, the bal- 
lot box (which consisted of a straw hat) was placed in 
position and the voting commenced. But with every- 
thing thus nicely started entirely in his favor, Mr. 
Shearman, like all masters of ceremonies upon important 
occasions, was still a little anxious lest something should 
happen to mar the smooth flow before the entertainment 
was over. Messrs. Ramsey, Van Vaulkenburg, Phelps 
and Smith were in the adjoining room and were looked 
upon as a possible disturbing element. The polls would 
be closed in an hour, and if these gents could only be 
tied up and prevented from action for that little length of 
time, all would be over and well. And a little string, 
especially designed for this very emergency, had been 
brought along and was now produced to do the de- 
sired tieing up. The order granted by Judge Barnard 
for the arrest of these gentlemen for the abstraction 
of the books and which had been carefully held back 
from all publicity, was now produced and at about 
the same moment that the newly-organized polls were 
opened the sheriff arrested them. This was the 
final blow and if successful — if an hour could be oc- 
cupied in marching the arrested gentlemen before 
a magistrate and getting bondsmen to give the outra- 



THE TRAP FAILS. 225 

geously large bail ($25,000) demanded — entire success of 
the coup de main and complete triumph for Mr. Eisk 
seemed beyond a peradventure. But, alas for human 
devices ! this move did not work so successfully as was 
hoped. Either Mr. Shearman and the sheriff differed as 
to the proper manner for the latter to proceed in the 
discharge of his duty or else the sheriff's courage failed 
him at the. vital moment through a consciousness of the 
outrageous character of the proceeding. The sheriff did 
not deem it indispensable that his prisoners should be 
taken from the building and carried before a magistrate. 
He obligingly consented to have the formalities of giving 
the required bail gone through with there in the room 
where they were and was guilty of the (in Erie eyes) 
unpardonable breach of duty and sin of having blank 
bail bonds in his pockets and furnishing them for the 
occasion instead of requiring time to be spent in sending 
to a stationer's. With these kindnesses Mr. Eamsey 
immediately set about furnishing satisfactory bondsmen, 
not in the least disconcerted by the surprise sprung upon 
him — doubly outrageous in its nature and the manner 
of its execution. Any number of most unquestionable 
men stood ready to give the bail demanded, and, interpose 
every captious, technical, pettifogging, frivolous, objection 
that he could in " sparring for wind " and the passage of 
the hour, Mr. Shearman was unable to consume more 
than a few minutes of time in the ceremony of bail 
giving. Before this ceremony was over, however, and 



226 TWO KIVAL POLLS OPEN. 

the move thus blocked, Mr. Smith, by direction of Mr. 
Ramsey, had gone into the entry of the building, there 
organized another meeting, chosen another set of inspec- 
tors, opened another poll and proceeded to hold their 
own election. A few minutes after twelve therefore, 
there were two polls open and two elections going on. 

But Mr. Ramsey, despite the traps sprung upon him 
and the numerous troublesome irons he had in the fire, 
still found time to cope with his enemies in wielding the 
now much enfeebled weapon of injunctions. Just as the 
Fisk poll was about to open, its inspectors were served 
with an injunction forbidding them to hold an election 
unless they allowed votes to be cast upon the twenty-four 
hundred shares of stock which had been placed in the 
hands of a receiver on the ground that it was illegal and 
could not be voted on. Of course it was intended by this 
order to give the men from whom this stock had been 
taken the privilege of voting upon it, they clearly being 
the only persons that could by any possibility have any 
right to vote upon it. But Mr. Shearman, eminent 
lawyer as he was, managed to make this order serve 
exactly the opposite purpose from that for which he 
knew it was designed. Mr. Fuller, the receiver, being 
present was directed to vote upon the stock, and he 
proceeded to do so and voted directly against the wishes 
of the men who owned the stock and to whom the order 
was expressly intended to give the right of voting thereon. 
Thus twenty-four hundred votes were given to Fisk on 



ANOTHER INJUNCTION. 227 

stock owned by his most active opponents. Some fifteen 
minutes later a second injunction was served on the Fisk 
inspectors enjoining them absolutely from holding an 
election ; but the delegation from the Five Points, partly 
perhaps from their eagerness to exercise the dignity of 
their novel and very ephemeral character as stockholders, 
and partly from Mr. Shearman's desire to work as rapidly 
as possible for fear of interference, had voted early, as 
they were accustomed to do when "repeating" in New 
York, and nearly all the votes of the Fisk party had been 
safely deposited in the straw hat before the last injunc- 
tion came, so it was necessary to violate it only a little 
to receive the few that remained to be cast. 

So well was the programme matured and rehearsed 
beforehand and such was the presence of mind displayed 
by the accomplished master of ceremonies that only a 
single desired detail in the performance had been omitted, 
but this little oversight was an important one. In their 
haste to organize and get their poll open first, the new 
Fisk inspectors had omitted to take the oath prescribed 
by the by-laws before entering upon the discharge of 
their duties. The books, which the by-laws required 
should be present for inspection on election day, had 
been secretly replaced by Mr. Eamsey the night before, 
and so the proceedings of his inspectors had been every 
way regular, and in accordance with the by-laws, and 
Mr. Shearman's sole claim to have his poll treated as the 
legal one rested upon the circumstance of its having been 



228 TWO SETS OF DIRECTOK8 ELECTED. 

organized a few minutes before the rival poll. Neither 
party voted at the other's poll, so of course each elected 
its own ticket without one opposing vote. At the Fisk 
poll 13,400 votes were ca.<t and the inspectors declared 
their ticket elected. At the Kamsey poll 10,742 votes 
were cast and the inspectors declared their ticket elected. 

Thus the election was over and matters stood just as 
before — with two opposing sets of officers claiming the 
road. The Fisk party had sought to win a little moral sup- 
port, add an air of respectability to their ticket and gain 
an advantage, by electing General McQuade and Colonel 
Banks among their directors. These gentlemen being 
already in possession of the road and running it in the 
name of the State, by their election on the Fisk ticket the 
road was already in the possession of the Erie party — 
nine points gained. But these gentlemen resigned imme- 
diately on hearing of their election, which had been with- 
out their consent or knowledge, and thus Mr. Fisk was 
left no better off than on the morning when Mr. Van 
Vaulkenburg hustled him down stairs a month before. 
He was obliged to return to New York with his "boys," 
more empty handed than he came, while the Governor 
still retained possession of the road and directed the 
Court to decide which election was valid and which set of 
directors was entitled to have possession. 

It was nearly three months before the issue came on for 
trial and even then Mr. Fisk's lawyers made a strenuous 
effort to obtain further delay, but in vain. The question 



THE COURTS DECIDE IN FATOE OF EAMSEY. 229 

was tried before Judge E. Darwin Smith at Kochester. 
After a most thorough trial and a careful consideration of 
the points raised the substance of Judge Smith's decision 
was that the proceeding of the Fisk party, purporting to 
be an election, was a fraud, conspiracy and outrage from 
beginning to end, a great disgrace to every one concerned 
in it, a scandal to the State, and utterly null and void. 
The Ramsey directors were declared legally elected and 
entitled to possession of the road. When the news of 
this decision reached New York, Mr. Fisk's lawyers ob- 
tained an order to prevent the judgment being entered, 
but that formality had been already gone through with 
when this New York order reached Rochester, so this 
was a waste of powder. Foiled in this move they imme- 
diately got another order staying all proceedings under the 
judgment and served it upon Messrs. McQuade and Banks 
to prevent possession being given to the Ramsey directors. 
Judge Peckham again came to the rescue, set aside this 
last order and directed possession to be given to the di- 
rectors that had been declared legally elected. This order 
of Judge Peckham' s was acted upon and the possession 
transferred as directed before any new order from New 
York could come to check it, and thus Mr. Ramsey at last 
again came into possession of his road. He was not long 
in transferring it beyond the reach of any further inter- 
ference from Mr. Fisk or Judge Barnard. The Erie 
party finding themselves utterly discomfited in their effort 
to get the road by a raid, now made overtures for leasing 



230 ERIE DEFEAT KD. 

it and offered very advantageous terms ; but Mr. Ramsey 
soon found that the bond of Messrs. Fisk and Gould was 
all the guarantee they proposed to give for the fulfilment 
of the contract and thereupon immediately discontinued 
negotiations with them and leased the road to the Dela- 
ware & Hudson Canal Co. for a long term of years upon 
very favorable conditions. 

Judge Smith allowed extra costs to the Ramsey party 
for all the annoyance and expense to which they had been 
subjected, and Hon. Samuel L. Selden, an ex-judge of the 
Court of Appeals, was appointed to determine the amount 
of extra costs that would be just and he decided that 
ninety-two thousand dollars was no more than a proper 
sum for the Erie party to pay to indemnify Mr. Ramsey 
and the road. Of course Judge Smith's opinion was 
appealed from ; but the General Term sustained his 
judgment as to the total illegality of the election of the 
Fisk board and the entire legality of that of the Ramsey 
board, though overruling (not on its merits but upon 
technical grounds) the allowance of extra costs. And 
thus was a final quietus put upon Mr. Fisk's twenty -sixth 
raid. 



CHAPTEE XII. 

BLACK FRIDAY THE GREAT GOLD CONSPIRACY WALL STREET 

AND THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL GATHERING OF THE 

WHIRLWIND A BATTLE OF GIANTS BURYING THE DEAD 

THE PLOT " GONE WHERE THE WOODBINE TWINETH." 

Towards the close of summer, 1869, a feeling seemed 
to prevail that speculating in gold, which had been so 
extensively engaged in and been the making and break- 
ing of many fine fortunes since the outbreak of the war 
in 1861, was drawing rapidly to a close, aud that the 
country would soon return to specie payments. August 
21st gold was selling for about 131, and so general was 
the feeling that it was destined to make steady progress 
towards par that many large operators sold heavily short 
to profit by the auticipated fall. 

In the spring gold fell to 131, at which price Jay Grould 
bought several millions and then, inducing various news- 
papers to magnify the probabilities of difficulties from the 
Alabama claims, a European war, the Cuban insurrec- 
tion, and various other matters that really had about as 
much influence upon gold as upon the moon, he pushed 



232 THE GREAT GOLD CONSPIRACY OF 1869. 

the price up to 145 and gathered a rich harvest. It was 
under reaction from this " bull " movement that the price 
had again dropped to 131 and created a feeling that it 
would quickly . touch 120. Contrary to all expectation, 
however, it suddenly turned again at 131 and was 
pushed gradually back to 137, at which price it sold 
during the forenoon of "Wednesday, September 22d. The 
bears and those who had sold short had been fighting 
this rise vigorously and confidently believed it would now 
fall again, when in the early afternoon it went strongly 
up 2 per cent, more, and later in the afternoon touched 
141 — a firm advance of 4 per cent, in one day, in the 
face of all opposition and against all natural causes. 
The movement puzzled everybody and ruined all the 
6mall " bears." The Gold Room again witnessed scenes 
of excitement to which it had been a stranger since the 
critical war days. Stocks always sympathize with a 
marked change in gold, moving in the opposite direction, 
and on this day the excitement and fluctuations in the 
stock market were even more surprising than the advance 
in gold. New York Central fell 22 per cent, in about 
as many minutes, and then fluctuated wildly over a 
range of 8 or 10 per cent, through the remainder of 
the day. Hudson River fell 13 per cent, and other 
stocks sympathized in the heavy fall. These move- 
ments placed dealers in great straits. Brokers called 
on their customers to increase their margins, which 
the day had wiped out. Money became very tight and 



FIBST DAT OF THE BATTLE. 233 

brokers had to pay high rates to get their balances 
carried over to the next day. The vicinity of the Stock 
Exchange and Gold Room was crowded till a much later 
hour than usual, and a throng gathered at the Fifth 
Avemie Hotel in the evening to discuss the events of the 
day, compare views, and to buy and sell on their belief as 
to what the morning would develop. The day had re- 
vealed the existence of a clique, small in numbers but 
very powerful and unscrupulous, in conspiracy for a 
"corner" in gold. Inquiry had shown the "short" con- 
tracts to be many times as large as all the obtainable gold 
in New York, and those who thus found themselves 
caught well knew the character of their opponents. 
Appeals had been made to the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury to relieve the situation by ordering a sale of Govern- 
ment gold ; but he regarded it ' as a struggle between 
gamblers and refused to interfere. But the shorts be- 
lieved a corner in gold too gigantic a move to be success- 
ful and still held out. When the dealings of Thursday 
morning opened it was at once made evident that the 
clique was in the ascendant, for gold still continued to 
advance. The margins that had been increased with the 
greatest difficulty the night before were again swept 
away and there was a new call for their increase. This 
was beyond the power of all but the very strongest 
dealers. All the small and medium operators were either 
stranded or settled their obligations on the best terms 
they could, fell out of the ranks and became observers 



234 FISK APPEARS IN THE GOLD ROOM. 

merely. In this way the clique gathered rich profits this 
day. They laid aside their masks entirely now and ap- 
peared boldly in the most intimidating attitude. The 
Gold Eoom was crowded, not as usual, mostly with clerks 
and mere boys, but the principals themselves of all the 
great firms appeared in the arena as they had rarely done 
before. To cap the climax of the unusual, James Fisk, 
Jr., personally appeared in the Gold Room and struck 
terror into the bears and encouraged the bulls to push 
forward by offering to bet any part of $50,000 that gold 
would go to 200, and finding no one to take the offer. 
Everywhere that day the clique bulled gold in the eame 
braggadocio way, insinuating that the Government officials 
were interested with them and would sell no Government 
gold (the only hope of the " bears ") and informing the 
"shorts" that they had better settle up or higher rates 
would be demanded. The wealthy firms only still defied 
the clique. This was a day of excitement and running, 
of alternating hope and fear, such as had rarely if ever 
been witnessed, even in the times of the war, and yet 
night closed upon the scene with the agony wholly unre- 
lieved, with gold standing at 144, leaving the contending 
parties to another midnight session at the Fifth Avenue 
Hotel and a night of most anxious suspense. 

Friday, September 24th, 1869, the sun rose bright 
and beautiful over New York, and its rays seemed 
to fill the air with a quietude and calm as if in mockery 
of bustling, greedy men. But those whose treasure 



GATHERING OF THE WHIBWIND. 235 

was concerned in the course of things in Wall Street that 
day rose with no heart for the poetic but were wholly 
absorbed with thoughts of what the day would bring 
forth in the matter of their fortune and hurried to the 
battle field to be ready for all opportunities. The region 
of the Stock Exchange and Grold Room was astir at a 
much earlier hour than usual. The boards open at ten 
o'clock, but long before that hour on this day all the 
small dealers and commission brokers were on the scene, 
ready and anxious to improve any opportunity that might 
occur for outside operations. At a much earlier hour 
than usual, too, came the young " bloods " who drive 
down grandly in their dogcarts with liveried footmen, 
and the dignified gents of more mature years in their 
coupes. That the scene might not be lacking in 
any of its proprieties, James Fisk, Jr., came driving 
down and turned into Broad Street in company with two 
richly attired actresses, one of them chiefly known to 
fame through her charms as displayed in " Mazeppa " 
and " The French Spy." Long before the regular 
business hour the greatest excitement prevailed, for the 
clique had already displayed unbroken nerve and power 
and turned on the screws another relentless stage, and 
many men riding down in their carriages were met far up 
Broadway by their clerks who had run to tell them the 
exciting news that gold was going at 152 ! But all 
outside dealings and quotations are apocryphal and 
brokers base all their demands for margins upon the 



236 THE FIRST GRAND CHARGE. 

quotations at the regular board ; so, wildly as the price 
might fluctuate, no panic could come till the board 
opened at ten o'clock. When this hour arrived, New 
Street and every passage leading to the Gold Boom 
was completely blocked up by one dense mass of 
humanity, all under the greatest state of excitement. 
Inside on the floor were gathered all the great dealers, or 
as many as could be packed within the limited circle, and 
the gallery was equally crowded with men all of whose 
worldly fortunes now hung tremblingly in the balance. 
At length the hour of ten arrived, the hammer fell and 
the board opened. The yell that immediately went up in 
the contending bids rent the air till it seemed the very 
roof must be lifted, and in the din, so far surpassing all 
that had ever been heard there before, even the trained 
ears could hardly distinguish a word. In a moment, 
however, the presiding officer caught and recorded the 
price 150 ! — six per cent, advance on the highest price of 
the day before ! A howl went up from the crowd inside 
as their eyes caught upon the indicator and was promptly 
taken up and echoed by the greater crowd outside. Such 
a manifestation of strength and determination on the part 
of the clique surprised even those who knew they were 
powerful. A livid pallor spread to nearly every face and 
a large portion of the crowd instantly bolted from the 
room, the brokers to demand a renewal of margins, the 
operators to provide for the demand or settle on the best 



THE GOVERNMENT IMPUGNED. 237 

terms they could obtain, many of both classes knowing 
the quotation meant their entire ruin. 

The clique and their agents stood ready to take advan- 
tage of the panic. " Settle up !" they cried, " or a higher 
rate will be demanded at once. The Government is with 
us and we have you wholly in our power." It was now 
well known that the short interest was about $250,000,000 
and that the clique themselves held in gold and contracts 
for delivery something like $120,000,000, while all the 
current gold in New York could be scarcely more than 
$20,000,000. The situation, therefore, looked very much as 
though the corner was perfected and a success. The Gov- 
ernment alone could break it by the sale of gold held in 
the sub-treasury, but the deaf ear which had been turned 
to all appeals to Washington, if they did not confirm the 
boast of the clique that the Washington authorities were 
interested with them, at least destroyed all hope of relief 
from that quarter. Under these circumstances, many 
who could do so without failing settled up, and many 
more either from choice or necessity failed to settle or in- 
crease their margins and failed. The clique having 
gathered all they could from their first assault, and many 
still holding out and bidding them defiance, they gave the 
screws another merciless turn, and at about 11 o'clock 
gold made another bound upward, and the indicator 
marked 155 ! Another fierce yell went up inside the 
Gold Room, and ran through the surging mass of human- 



238 "up she goes." 

ity now packing the streets outside. Men ! Could these be 
rational men ? Faces marked with an unearthly pallor 
and expression, eyes glaring wildly, hands and arms 
gesticulating frantically, voices screeching to the utmost 
power of the lungs and hoarse from continued exertion, 
it was a spectacle that beggars all description and cannot 
be even faintly imagined by those who have never wit- 
nessed the doings of this class of men. No boys or mere 
clerks were there to-day. They had disappeared two 
days before, their space being wanted by the older men 
and the heads of the great firms. Prominent in the circle 
around the fountain, to-day, was Albert Speyers, a Ger- 
man Jew, a large man now past the middle of life, with a 
long record as a prominent and wealthy dealer in both 
stocks and gold. He was now the leader of the bull 
clique, bidding the price up to the highest point every 
moment, and buying in untold quantities, and acting like 
a mad man. William Heath, the head of an old, wealthy 
and most respectable firm, was also there, acting with the 
bulls and bidding in person. The great house of Brown 
Brothers was also represented by one of the firm in person, 
and the room was now filled with only the members of 
the wealthiest and most powerful firms. When the price 
went to 155, " Settle up !" cried Fisk and the rest of the 
clique. "Never! do your worst!" was the defiant 
response of the great firms who were still able to hold 
out and did not believe a corner in gold possible. " Up 
she goes, then !" threatened Fisk, and at half-past eleven 



THE LAST MERCILESS CHAKGE. 239 

the indicator jumped to 1 60 ! It rested there but a moment 
and then pushed up to 162, and for a moment touched 
164 ! Speyers was buying by the million at a bid, always 
bidding the highest price, and William Heath bid for a 
million at 160. The men in the room and on the street, 
had already reached the highest possible state of excite- 
ment and confusion under the previous advances, and this 
last upward movement served only to keep them up to 
that degree of nervous tension which cannot be long 
maintained without new stimulant. All were now rushing 
wildly about in apparent desperation, and the braggart 
declaration of Fisk the day before that gold would go 
to 200 seemed likely to be made good. Loud impreca- 
tions against the clique were now rife upon the street, and 
had any of them appeared they would not unlikely have 
answered with their lives. But they were conscious of 
their danger, carefully avoided the crowd and were 
strongly guarded from any attack that might be made 
upon them. 

In the midst of the greatest excitement, when gold was 
vibrating between 160 and 164, a messenger arrived in 
the Gold Eoom with the news " the Government is sell- 
ing gold!" " How much ?" was quickly inquired. " Fif- 
teen millions /" was the prompt reply, and instantly the 
bears bounded as an army bounds when a mine is ex- 
ploded beneath it. A thrill spread as if by an electric 
current and in less than one minute gold fell to 135 ! 
Albert Speyers attempted to fill the breach and maintain 



240 AN INFERNO. 

an unbroken front by boldly bidding for a m i llion at 160. 
The offer was instantly snatched at by a hundred bears, 
and the foolish effort was vain. Gold had gone down like 
a plummet dropped in the ocean — 30 per cent, in a minute 
and could not be rallied. Speyers fell back in the crowd 
in entire nervous exhaustion. The wand of the clique was 
hopelessly broken, the most daring gold plot the world 
has ever known was defeated, and the great crisis was at 
an end. 

But relief from the death grip of the clique and the 
shock of active battle only gave the first opportunity to 
survey the field and realize how wide-spread and disas- 
trous the conflict had been. The agony and heart sick- 
ness was increased rather than diminished by the cessation 
of the excitement of the Gold Room, for it seemed that 
disaster and ruin had gone everywhere, or at least no one 
was sure how he should stand when the day's score was 
settled. Numerous failures were reported and it was 
certain others would speedily follow. Everywhere around 
Broad, Wall and New Streets, and Exchange Place, 
crowds were gathered discussing incidents and reporting 
news ; faces were ashy pale, eyes were wild with excite- 
ment, countenances vividly portrayed the greatest anxiety, 
and frequent resorts to Delmonico's was the only means 
by which many sustained the severe draft upon their 
nerves. The spectacle was one such as Dante might have 
seen in Inferno and was more wretched than any he has 
described. Those whose dealings had been on the winning 



RUINED HOMES. 241 

side felt but little safer or more contented than those who 
had lost, for those to whom they had sold gold might fail 
and be unable to take it and then it would entail loss 
where there had seemed to be gain. In not a few cases 
men who had bought gold at something above 140 
sold at about 160 and, had the dealings been cleared 
in the ordinary way, would have made a very hand- 
some fortune ; but the parties to whom they sold failed 
and could not take the gold, so it came back upon their 
hands when they could only get 133 lor it. So large had 
been the dealings that the Gold Exchange had not yet 
been able to foot up and settle Thursday's transactions, so 
all was doubt and uncertainty and the shadow of disaster 
brooded over all Wall Street and its ramifications. 

Affairs were in this unsettled and nerve-disturbing state 
when the afternoon hour arrived and it was time to 
think of home. That thought brought to many their first 
full realization of the day's disaster. Home ! How many 
could not bear think of home now ! How many now first 
fully realized what they had staked upon the fortunes of 
the day. Many who had left happy homes, and not a few 
who had been lordly owners of the most elegant resi- 
dences on the Hudson or the Sound in the morning, must 
now return at evening to meet wife and children, feeling 
that those homes were no longer theirs, ruin and penury 
staring them in the face. The disaster which the clique 
had spread was now fully felt and so great was the indig- 
nation against them that they secured, safety only by con- 



242 BAKIUCADED AT TBF, OPERA HOUSK. 

cealment. Early in the day Fisk had fled the scene and 
was securely barricaded in the Grand < )pera House. The 
doors of Jay Gould's office were guarded by a strong 
force of police and no one could gain admission. The day 
closed upon such a scene as was never before witnessed 
in Wall Street and probably may never be again. Its 
habitues lingered in its haunts much later than usual, as 
if unable to face home, and in the evening gas-lights were 
detected in many offices where they had never been seen 
before, so eager were men to balance their accounts and, 
if possible, gain some idea how they stood. The spectacle 
of agonized hearts and countenances was continued in the 
evening at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and surpassed anything 
that had ever been witnessed there. Threats against Fisk 
and his fellow conspirators were frequent, and a spectacle 
of men suffering greater mental torment could not be. 

When the Wall Street men gathered in their places 
Saturday morning a calmer feeling prevailed, but the 
utter wretchedness of the situation was still more clearly 
depicted in their faces. It was like surveying the ruins 
the next morning after a great fire has swept across a 
whole region and left only charred remains and crumbled 
walls where yesterday stood stately buildings. The Gold 
Exchange Bank had been unable to get the figures even 
of Thursday's business arranged as yet, so no clearance 
of the gold dealings could be hoped for and no one could 
determine how his affairs stood. .New failures wore re- 
ported and the gloom thickened. The Gold Board met 



THE GOLD EXCHANGE BANK. 243 

but without doing any business adjourned till Monday to 
give the Gold Exchange time to arrange the~accounts and 
effect the clearances, and this produced a more contented 
feeling. 

The Gold Exchange Bank increased its force of clerks 
and kept them all busily at work through the night and 
as constantly as their physical powers would permit ; yet 
Monday morning came and found the bank unprepared 
to discharge its duties or give any relief to the situation, 
not even Thursday's accounts having been"straightened. 
Men had gone to their homes on Saturday in the full 
confidence that when they returned again the bank would 
be ready to effect the clearances and the situation would 
then be fully known at least and men would be able to 
know how they were coming out. The disappointment 
was therefore very bitter and rumors began to prevail 
that the bank itself was involved. The situation seemed 
helpless under the circumstances and no one knew what 
to do. Several meetings of the Gold Board were held, 
and numerous propositions were made, but they finally 
adjourned to give the bank one more opportunity of 
clearing the obstruction, thus entailing one more night of 
anxious suspense upon those whose operations were 
bound up by the delay in the clearing house. Tuesday 
morning found things in no better condition at the Gold 
Exchange Bank, and those whose action was fettered 
by this blockup were now almost desperate. The murmurs 
against the bank and the imputations upon its solvency 



244 HOPE, DISAPPOINTS! FATS, PA NIT. 

and good faith, were now loud and numerous. The 
Gold Board met and it was now felt that something 
must be done independent of the Gold Exchange to 
settle the balances for Friday's dealings, as that institu- 
tion had proved its inability to do so. Various plans 
were suggested but none of them seemed practicable or 
satisfactory till it was announced that the Bank of New 
York would undertake to act as a clearing house for Fri- 
day's transactions. This announcement was hailed with 
joy and promised relief at last. The brokers immediately 
made out their statements and handed them in to the bank. 
and early in the afternoon clerks began to gather at the 
bank to get the balances of their firms settled. The line 
formed and grew rapidly till it extended out of the 
building into the street and then far up the sidewalk on 
Wall Street. The bank officers and clerks had been 
busily at work but the business was new to them and 
when they realized the vast volume of work to be done 
they became discouraged at once and saw they had 
undertaken a task they could not perform. Great as 
was the mortification and disastrous as they knew the 
consequence would be upon the Street, they therefore, 
at half past two, announced their utter inability to effect 
the clearances and discontinued the work. The instant 
effect of this announcement was a new panic. Distrust 
now spread everywhere. New York Central dropped at 
once to 145, completing a fall of 73 per cent, in a few 
days. A great universal crash seemed imminent. A 



THE COMMITTEE OF TWENTY. 245 

new meeting of the Gold Board was held and after many 
propositions, a committee of twenty was appointed to 
settle Friday's business. New hope caught upon this 
move and it looked as thoiigh the end of the agony would 
now soon be reached. The apartments of the banking 
house of Jay Cooke & Co., corner of Wall and Nassau 
Streets, were placed at the service of the committee, and 
they went immediately to their work. Brokers handed in 
their stat3ments and went home confident that the com- 
mittee would straighten matters and afford relief by morn- 
ing. All night long the committee and their clerks 
worked busily and made excellent progress in effecting 
the balances. Only one difficulty hampered them — one or 
two firms had failed to hand in their statements. In the 
early part of the evening these firms had promised to have 
their statements in by ten o'clock, but this they failed to 
do, making a new promise that they should certainly be 
in early in the morning. With this the committee were 
contented and pushed forward with the other statements. 
Morning came, but one of the .statements still lingered. 
The hour for the meeting of the Gold Board came and 
one of the committee went down to report progress. He 
represented that they were very much encouraged, had 
nearly completed all the accounts, and as soon as they had 
one more statement, which they were promised soon, all 
the details would be arranged and the settlements could 
go forward. This produced a favorable effect and the 
members scattered, feeling that their difficulties would be 



246 CLAMORS FOR LYNCH LAW. 

relieved before the day was over. At two o'clock the 
Gold Board met again and the member of the committee 
came in to make a further report. He was evidently very 
deeply moved and he was listened to in impressive silence 
as he announced that the one dilatory statement had not 
been handed in, that the committee were satisfied the firm 
did not intendUo hand it in, and that without it they could 
not go on or effect any relief of the situation. He an- 
nounced the delinquent firm to be Jay Gould's. The 
members were almost frantic at this announcement of the 
conduct of that firm, and shouted " Hang them ! Lynch 
them ! " It was felt the firm were prolonging the troubles 
perposely to profit by the situation. But nothing could 
be done. The committee was discharged and the board 
thrown back upon its wits to get out of the difficulty. 
The Gold Exchange Bank had now been placed in the 
hands of a receiver and the situation had become sadly 
complicated. 

The gloom of this day was greatly deepened by the 
announcement of the failure of the great firm of Lock- 
wood & Co. It was a firm of thirty years' standing and 
with many millions of capital. They were largely loaded 
with western railroad stocks and the great sudden decline 
had swamped them. 

By a rule of the board, if a member fails, his gold, if 
he has any with the bank, may be sold and applied to his 
accounts, and if he is indebted, a purchase is made for 
forms sake to meet his account, and the loss adjusted 



BELIEF AT LAST. 247 

among his creditors. Under this rule it was now proposed 
to sell out the account of Jay Gould's firm and then settle 
the other accounts. To block this move an injunction was 
obtained by the firm forbidding any such sale, and the 
board was once more at a stand still. It was now decided 
that each dealer must settle his Friday's dealings by him- 
self in the mercantile way, without any reference to a 
clearing house or dealing by balances. Injunctions 
against this mode of settlement were issued against all the 
firms with which Jay Gould's firm had had any dealings ; 
and as the Stock Exchange had voted to deal in gold and 
had a regulation similar to the Gold Board about selling 
out the accounts of delinquents, an injunction was also 
served upon the Stock Exchange forbidding their selling 
out the accounts of delinquents. And in this manner 
matters were now tied up. But the brokers went forward 
settling their own accounts with each other. Soon Jay 
Gould showed a willingness to fall in with the arrange- 
ment, and thus, after about ten days, matters were 
restored to their usual state, the injunctions were re- 
moved, and business went on. 

The great gold plot was ended and though it had made 
skeletons thicker in Wall Street than any other event had 
ever done yet it had been substantially a failure even for 
its originators. The arch conspirator, the]-_originator of 
the7plot,T[was JayTGould.^'He commenced plotting'the 
scheme early in r the summer, and at first boldly designed 
and attempted^ to get the Government implicated withfhirn, 



248 THE PLOT. 

or at least committed to a non-interference with his plot. 
The evening Gen. Grant was a passenger on the Fisk line 
of steamers on his way to the Boston Peace Jubilee, in 
June, he was surrounded by Gould, Fisk and several 
of their friends and the conversation was turned to the 
financial policy of the Government. Gould, Fisk and 
others earnestly maintained that the policy of the Govern- 
ment ought to be to keep gold high during the fall, while 
the crops were being moved, that the farmers and pro- 
ducers might get a good price for thoir ci'ops and the 
business of the country generally be kept in a flourishing 
condition. And for this purpose, it was argued, the 
Government should cease its monthly sales of gold, an- 
nounce that it would appear no more as a seller of coin, 
and pursue a policy looking to a rise. The specious rea- 
soning was listened to carefully, but the President in no 
wise committed himself. A letter advocating the same 
views, written by Mr. James McHenry, was extensively 
circulated and went the rounds of the press under Mr. 
Gould's manipulations. The first attempt to get some 
reliable impression as to what the policy of the President 
would be having entirely failed, it was resolved to ask 
him the question directly. To perform this brazen office 
of course Gould selected Mr. Fisk. A few weeks later 
when the President was on his way to Long Branch on 
one occasion, Mr. Fisk went down to the boat, approached 
the President and boldly told him that he and Mr. Gould 
would like a little private information as to the future 



THE PRESIDENT APPROACHED. 249 

intention of the Government in the matter of gold. Gen. 
Grant quietly asked Mr. Fisk if he thought it right that 
they should be furnished with such private information. 
Mr. Fish is very quick to read men, and seeing from the 
President's manner and the nature of his interrogative 
answer that the desired information could not be had, he 
made a virtue of necessity, admitting that it would not be 
fair, and gracefully retired. 

Foiled in these direct attempts upon the very fountain- 
head of authority, Mr. Gould resolved to work indirectly 
and get information at second hand — any way to get the 
President committed and secure the desired point. For 
this purpose recourse was now had to Abel P. Corbin, 
General Grant's brother-in-law. He seems to have been 
an exceedingly weak, superannuated man, and he fell in 
with Mr. Gould's plans and wishes altogether too readily 
for a hopeful subject. He was eager to join the gold plot, 
was sure it could be carried out successfully, and repre- 
sented that he was privy to all the plans of the President 
and could find out all they wished to know, even if he 
could not himself control the policy of the Government on 
the gold question through his great influence over General 
Grant. Though a little suspicious of such ready eager- 
ness and such grand claims to influence, Gould made use 
of this tool as the best to be had under the circumstances. 
In his frequent passages through New York, of course the 
President was several times at the house of his brother-in- 
law during the summer, and Corbin represented that he 



25(1 DE8BBTKB8. 

had got the President all right in the matter of favoring 
the plan of keeping gold high while the crops were 
moving and that Government would not interfere with 
their plans or break their ring by selling gold. A new 
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury had to be appointed 
for New York, and the securing of this place for General 
Butterfield seemed partially to confirm Corbin's repre- 
sentations as to influence and assure Gould that his tool 
was worthy of some reliance. Under these circumstances 
Gould with W. S. Woodard and Arthur Ivimber, who 
were with him in the plot for a corner, made their first 
heavy purchases of gold. The Government made 
the usual monthly sales of gold in August and 
September. This greatly weakened Gould's reliance 
upon Corbin, still Gen. Butterfield, tbe new assistant 
treasurer, was speculating in gold, looking to an advance, 
and the chances were that the Government would not in- 
terfere with the plot by ordering an extra sale to break a 
corner. The purchases were pushed forward, and after 
falling from 137 (near which the clique had made some 
heavy purchases), to 181, it rallied and went up to 141, 
Wednesday, Sept. 22d. At this point Woodard and Kimber, 
having lost faith in the success of the more daring scheme 
of a perfect corner, sold out their gold and retired from 
the clique. Fisk had not thus far had much to do with 
the matter, but Gould being now alarmed by the deser- 
tion of his confederates and having but little faith in 
Corbin, was in desperate need of sonic man of tremend- 



FISK TO THE RESCUE. 



251 



cms nerve and boldness to come to his rescue, and Fisk 
came in to fill the breach and made his public appearance 
in the Gold Room on Thursday. Fish's own characteristic 
and poetic description of his advent in the affair was : 
" When Gould found himself loaded down to the gun- 
wales and likely to go under, the cussed fellow never said 
a word. He's too proud for that. But I saw him tearing 
up bits of paper, and when Gould snips off corners of 
newspapers and tears 'em up in bits, I knew there was 
trouble. Then I came in to help. He knows I'd go my 
bottom dollar on him, and I said to him, Look here, old 
fellow ! When I was a boy on a farm in Vermont, I've 
seen the old man go out to yoke up Buck and Brindle ; he'd 
lift the heavy yoke on to Brin die's neck, key the bow and 
then, holding up the other end, motion to old Buck to 
come under, and old Buck would back off and off, and 
sometimes before he could persuade him under, the yoke 
would get too heavy for dad. And Gould, old fellow, 
Wall Street won't be persuaded and the yoke is getting 
heavy, and here I am to give you a lift." 

It was determined to push boldly forward in the at- 
tempt at a corner and at the same time guard this move 
by resorting to another trick so that even if the Govern- 
ment should sell gold to break the coiner the clique could 
yet save themselves. This supplementary trick was for 
two or three dealers of little means but good credit to buy 
heavily and keep forcing the price up, while other mem- 
bers of the clique would sell heavily at the high prices 



252 REPUDIATING CONTRACTS. 

thus created ; then if the corner failed and a panic 6ent 
the price down, those of the clique who had bought the 
enormous sums would fail and be unable to keep their 
contracts and so lose little or nothing, while those who 
had sold to responsible men at the high rates would make 
enormous sums, and the clique couldjthen divide the 
spoil among the members. This is the explanation of 
Albert Speyers and Belden buying at 160 or above 
when Gould was selling at about 150. Speyers failed 
on contracts for $17,000,000 and Belden on contracts 
for $50,000,000. 

After the collapse Fisk repudiated large numbers of 
purchases made on his account at the high prices, saying 
they were unauthorized, but insisted on the execution 
of all sales made for him. Many suits for large sums 
were brought against him to enforce the contract of pur- 
chases made by his brokers and the Grand Opera House 
property was attached in the proceedings. The suits 
have been worried through two years and a half of delay 
and no decision or trial has yet been obtained by the 
plaintiffs. 

For quitn a time after the panic Mr. Fisk remained 
closely barricaded in the Grand Opera House, at first 
because of the threats against him, afterwards to avoid 
being served with papers in the suits commenced against 
him. During this time the whole region of the Opera 
House was kept under complete espionage. If any one 
was seen standing about near there with no apparent 



" GONE WHERE THE WOODBINK TWINETH.'' 253 

business, or looking up at the Opera House windows and 
doors, he was immediately approached by a small squad 
of Mr. Fisk's minions and warned to take the next car up 
or down town or qxiit the vicinity at once — a warning 
which the recipient invariably deemed it wise to heed. 
In this way the service of legal documents was eluded 
for a long time. 

Soon after the collapse and when his part in the 
affair leaked out, Mr. Corbin was suddenly non est, and 
was rumored to have gone to Kentucky. Some allusion 
to his whereabouts being made in Mr. Fisk's presence, 
he made the characteristic remark that enjoyed a nine 
days' celebrity — " He's gone where the woodbine twin- 
eth." 

The most persistent and scandalous efforts were made 
to implicate the President in the gold speculation. All 
the haberdasher bills and private notes of Mrs. Grant 
for the months preceeding were pried into to give color- 
ing to the insinuation, but all in vain. Congress 
appointed a committee to investigate the charge and it 
was proven to be utterly baseless. Fisk, Gould and 
Corbin were examined by the committee. Corbin said 
that when he went to the Opera House, after the panic, 
Fisk said to him, " 0, Gould has sunk right down under 
it. You won't see anything left of him but a pair of eyes 
and a suit of clothes." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE COLONEL THE GALLANT NINTH THE FIRST MOONLIGHT 

PARADE THE TWELVE TEMPTATIONS AND A BUTTER BILL 

IN GAMP AT LON15 BRANCH AT BUNKER HILL SENSA- 
TION AMONG THE PURITANS. 

In the latter part of March, 1870, rumors began to 
circulate in New York that the many-sided Mr. Fisk 
was about to create another new sensation and appear in 
still another entirely new role — that of Colonel of the 
Ninth Eegiment National Guard State of New York. At 
first the journalists treated the rumor as a jest and ridi- 
culed the idea as they ridiculed the idea of the Boston 
Peace Jubilee a year before. And the members of the 
National Guard especially scouted the story as too absurd 
for anything but a laugh, deeming it impossible that a 
regiment with such an excellent war record would be 
guilty of such a breach of esprit <le corps as to go outside 
of its own organization and select a civilian, and one of 
Mr. Fisk's character, for its commander. But confirma- 
tion followed upon rumor so speedily that the news soon 



HIS ELECTION. 255 

ceased to be regarded as a jest and on the 7th of April all 
doubts in the matter were put at rest by his election. 

The regiment was not in a nourishing condition, either 
in numbers or financially, and the rank and file were 
very desirous of adopting some means of filling their 
ranks and their treasury and securing for their organiza- 
tion a prominent standing in the National Guard. The 
readiest and easiest means of accomplishing this purpose 
seemed to be to capture Admiral Fisk and transfer him 
from the navy to the land forces as their Colonel. The 
Admiral did not at all object to being thus captured, but 
on the contrary seemed on what, at a Methodist prayer- 
meeting, would be called the " anxious seat." 

Lieut. -Colonel Braine, a most excellent officer who had 
served with the regiment through the war, was first 
elected to fill the vacant Colonelcy. He was by every con- 
sideration entitled to the place and in every way worthy 
of it. The commissioned officers felt this and could not 
disregard his claims, but his election seemed a great dis- 
appointment to the privates. They loved and honored him 
but they had set their hearts upon the Prince of Erie as 
the one man who could speedily lift them over all their 
difficulties into a flourishing condition and give them the 
most good times. In deference to what was thus known 
to be the desire of his men, Colonel Braine immediately 
resigned his new office, was reelected Lieutenant-Colonel, 
and Admiral Fisk was elected Colonel. 

The event created no little surprise in military circles 



K.ECRUITI NG. 



and was variously commented on by the press. Many 
surmises were indulged as to the remote designs and con- 
sequences of this new move, some affecting to see in it a 
scheme of dark portent and a determination to have a 
band of reliable men ready at command in the event of an- 
other affair like the Albany & Susquehanna railroad war. 
To be the subject of such absurd suspicion is the price Mr. 
Fisk has to pay for the character he has achieved, in 
seeking the Colonelcy of the Ninth he merely had the same 
ambition that any other man would have and sought it 
for the opportunity it gave him of gratifying the desire of 
being conspicuous and making a sensation which he had 
already manifested in so many other ways. 

Though he had never had any experience in military 
matters, not even to play soldier with broomstick and 
paper chapeau when a boy, he assumed his new charge 
with an unhesitating confidence, thinking there was not 
much in its requirements beyond a uniform and a sword. 
At his first meeting with his command he freely ventilated 
his ideas on the military art and the needs of the regi- 
ment and at once announced his intentions and will in an 
imperious tone. The regiment mustered something less 
than two hundred and fifty men when they first assembled 
to receive their new Colonel. Feeling that money was 
the great motive power here as elsewhere, he immediately 
offered a prize of $500 for the company that would secure 
the greatest number of recruits by the 1st of July. There 
was one letter in the regiment wholly vacant. A new 



THE FIKST MOONLIGHT PARADE. 257 

company was immediately organized to fill this vacant 
letter and constituted the special Fisk Guard. Recruiting 
went briskly forward and so many of the Colonel's re- 
tainers in the various departments of Erie enrolled them- 
selves binder the banners of the Ninth that the lonesome 
appearance of its thin ranks quickly disappeared and the 
lines lengthened rapidly. On the 14th of April the Ninth 
marched out for its first moonlight parade under its new 
commander. The event had been looked forward to with 
the peculiar interest that now attaches to everything that 
Mr. Fisk does. It was a lovely moonlight evening and 
the Colonel led his regiment past the Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
Delmonico's and the numerous club houses on Fifth 
Avenue. He was gazed at everywhere with the usual 
curiosity and interest and the spectacle excited a signifi- 
cant smile and many sallies of wit from the contemptuous 
grandees who looked down from club-room windows. 
During the whole of this march he acted (what he really 
is to the regiment), only as a figure-head, all the orders 
being given by the Lieutenant-Colonel. 

The next grand show of the Ninth was May 13th, when 
they were taken to the Grand Opera House to witness 
" The Twelve Temptations." Owing to the elaborate 
toilet of the Colonel for the occasion he was nearly an hour 
behind time and the audience were kept waiting in their 
seats till near nine o'clock before the curtain rose. Then 
the Manager- Colonel came marching in with his com- 
mand and his ballet commenced dancing to amuse his 

L 



258 AH OFFENSIVE BUTTEK BILL. 

soldier boys. As he stood at the grand entrance, drink- 
ing deeply of the glory of the occasion, his warriors filing 
past him to their choice seats, a constable stepped up and 
served a summons and complaint upon him. He glanced 
at the legal document and found a grocer had sued him 
for a butter bill of $41.25. He became exceedingly irate 
and indignant when he found out the nature of the docu- 
ment, stamped it under his feet and stalked off to his 
private box with a most lordly 36-inch stride, declaring it 
a trick patched up by some one to insult him in the 
presence of his men. The soldiers saw that something had 
been done to offend their Colonel's dignity and deported 
themselves in such a way that the constable serving the 
papers found it advisable to get out of the Grand Opera 
House as soon as possible. The soothing strains of the 
orchestra, the lively and graceful pas of his favorite dan- 
seme, the bewildering mazes of the ravishing ballet, the 
wonderful gyrations of Herr Von Ajax, the grand transfor- 
mation scene at the close, all delighted his brave men won- 
derfully, but their influence could not recall the Colonel 
to his wonted spirits and make him forget that little 
incident of the butter bill. After the performance he 
entertained his officers and some of his chief danseuses at 
a sumptuous entertainment in his elegant banqueting hall. 
Recruiting progressed quite successfully and by the 
first of July the regiment numbered about seven hundred 
men and the subject of a summer encampment began to 
be considered. Long Branch is now the gayest of our 



ON THE BEACH AT XONO BRANCH. 259 

seaside watering places ; at Long Branch Mr. Fisk has 
his summer residence ; to Long Branch runs Mr. Fisk's 
floating palace, the " Plymouth Rock ;" and to Long 
Branch it was decided to go for the summer encampment. 
They were to go into camp for ten days — for instruction, 
the Colonel informed them, and not for fun. The strictest 
military regulations of camp life were to be observed and 
the men were notified beforehand not to ask for leaves of 
absence during the time, as none would be granted. 
Saturday, August 20th, was fixed upon for the day of 
departure. The morning dawned bright and beautiful and 
the boys of the gallant Ninth were seen gathering from 
every direction for the grand event. The regiment was 
ordered to be in line at eight o'clock, but the usual delays 
incident to such occasions were experienced and it was 
nine o'clock before the line was formed. The Colonel 
appeared mounted upon a grand chestnut charger and 
wore an elegant uniform said to have cost two thousand 
dollars. As he took his place at the head of the column 
he made a much better figure than had been generally 
anticipated. He had now learned enough of the com- 
mands to start and halt his regiment, so he was now able 
to put them in motion without being prompted by Colonel 
Braine. As they marched down Broadway the sidewalks 
and windows were crowded on either side. The regiment 
made a fine appearance and marched well, but the 
Colonel was the chief object of interest and the centre of 
all the curiosity. They were late in reaching the wharf 



260 PLAYING "80GF.BS." 

and the Plymouth Rock had to wait half an hour or so 
beyond her appointed time for starting. As she put out 
into the stream some vessel in the bay fired a salute 
which she returned and then steamed on her way and 
made up her lost time before reaching Sandy Hook. 

When the end of the journey was reached and the 
Adjutant had formed his regiment in line preparatory to 
marching to the camp ground, a most ludicrous scene 
occurred. The Colonel wished to make a little prelim- 
inary display and straighten out the muscles that had 
been cramped during the ride ; but he knew not the 
commands which it now devolved upon him to give, so his 
Lieutenant-Colonel was placed close behind to prompt him 
in an undertone. The Colonel quickly repeated the first 
order to his men without making the proper pause 
between the warning and order. This naturally caused 
an awkward execution of the order by the men. As 
soon as he had repeated the first order, Colonel Braine 
prompted him on the next that he might have it ready 
when the proper time came ; but without waiting at all 
he repeated it to the men as soon as he caught it him- 
self, without observing whether they were ready for it or 
not, and in the same unmilitary-like way in which he 
had given the first. The consequence was a still more 
awkward exhibition on the part of the men and a laugh. 
This slightly disconcerted the gallant Colonel and his 
only thought now was to catch and repeat the commands. 
He deemed it wholly the regiment's business and none of 



CAMP GOULD. 201 

his how they were executed if he only got them out. 
With all his attention turned behind him to hear his 
prompter, he forgot his men entirely. They had but half 
finished " Shoulder arms !" when " Eight shoulder 
shift arms !" came upon them and they were thrown into 
utter confusion. If the Colonel did not understand the 
prompter exactly he blurted out something sounding as 
nearly like it as possible, like the boy in the Sunday 
school. The result was that every one set up a great 
laugh at his Highness, which he turned in the best way 
by joining in it himself, and turned over the regiment to 
the orders of the Adjutant and rode off to the camp at its 
head. The march of course lead it by all the large hotels 
and here as in the city the regiment, or the Colonel, 
created a great sensation. 

The camp was very elegantly laid out and was 
christened " Camp Gould " in compliment to the one 
single man who shares every secret of Mr. Fisk's breast, 
who has been his one trusted, inseparable companion and 
confederate through all his noted career, and on whom he 
says he would "go his bottom dollar." It was in the 
midst of the almost unprecedentedly hot period of that 
summer that they reached their camp. The first thing 
the Colonel did on reaching his grand tent was to doff all 
his fine feathers instantly and make himself as comforable 
as possible. His elegant new uniform had absorbed an 
immense quantity of perspiration from, him that day and 
he realized that "sogering" was not all fun. He felt 



262 STRIPPED OF HIS GAUDY PLUMAGE. 

with Sidney Smith that it would be very comfortable to 
take off his flesh and sit in his bones for a time. Having 
reduced himself to a condition of entire dishabille, he pro- 
ceeded on a tour of inspection round the camp to acquaint 
himself with the condition and wants of his men. They 
were very much amused to see their commander so 
greatly changed, the peacock stripped of all his gaudy 
plumage, and this tour of inspection made the camp jolly 
in the extreme. This, however, was only the beginning 
of the humors of the day. As the Colonel approached his 
marquee on completing the circuit of the camp, he was 
met by almost all the band men, who were Germans, and 
respectfully petitioned him that they be supplied with 
lager for a beverage. But the Colonel was determined on 
military rigor while in camp and answered " Oh, no ! we 
brought you down hear to play music, not to drink lager 
beer. You can't play that on me ! " But the Teutons 
pleaded that their throats were parched from blowing so 
much on their instruments, and finally the kind-hearted 
Colonel relaxed so far as to let them have some lager. 
This delegation had hardly retired when another son 
of the Fatherland appeared, saluted the Colonel, and 
said, "I vants to go out." "You can't have a pass from 
me," was the reply. " Den me goes midout it ! 1 bet 
you ten dollar me goes out ven I pleazhe !" ejaculated the 
insubordinate Teuton, and the Colonel was looking very 
much puzzled what to do with such a troublesome cus- 
tomer when the Adjutant came to his rescue by putting 



CHASING DESEKTER8- 263 

the man under arrest and marching him off towards the 
guard-house. As soon as the Colonel divined the nature 
of this act of discipline he shouted "Adjutant, put that 
man in the guard-house." In his new and close quarters 
the German was soon joined by two other men who had 
been caught attempting to break bounds. After the party 
had been kept in confinement for an hour or two they 
became penitent and asked to be taken to the Colonel to 
obtain his pardon. As they came up in front of the mar- 
quee the Colonel fixing a determined eye on the obstrep- 
erous Teuton said " Well, old boy ! don't you think you'd 
've lost your ten dollars if you'd made that bet ? I guess 
you would !" Then addressing himself to all the numer- 
ous applicants around him for passes to go out and those 
who had been caught attempting to run out, he continued, 
"Now look a-here, no chap is going to leave without a 
pass from me. This camp ought to be like a country 
grave-yard — no one who is outside should want to come 
in and no one who is inside can get out." With this he 
dismissed them to their tents. But as soon as the dark- 
ness set in nearly half the men were trying to steal out of 
camp to see what was going on among the gay world of 
fashion. The Colonel had been suspicious of this and so 
was on the look-out. He joined personally in pursuit of 
deserters and chasing them afforded him great fun for a 
time, but the novelty of it soon wore off as in his other 
pleasures. He was, however, determined to establish a 
system of thorough discipline, and so spent the greater 



264 AT DRESS PARADE. 

part of the night chasing deserters and bringing them 
back to camp. " Why !" said he, " how the deuce could 
I teach these men all I know about military science if 
they are all the way from here to West End ?" 

The men soon settled down quietly under their discip- 
line, all worked smoothly and the ten days were made 
what the Colonel announced they were to be — a period of 
instruction. And he applied himself to the schooling as 
rigorously as he did the men. The ludicrous predicament 
in which he had found himself on arriving had shown 
him that there were some further requisites for a Colonel 
besides a uniform and a sword, and he devoted himself 
vigorously to mastering the manual of arms and the more 
elementary evolutions. The first dress parade was rather 
awkward, like the previous display, but both men and 
commander improved very perceptably each day, and at 
the close of the ten days they presented the appearance of 
a well drilled regiment. Their dress parade was the fea- 
ture of the day at Long Branch while they remained. All 
the company at the hotels poured out to witness it ; car- 
riages crowded around the encampment as far as any view 
could be obtained, and the pageant was one such as is 
rarely witnessed — Mr. Fisk, as ever, still being the great 
centre of all the curiosity and attraction. 

Many rumors were afloat as to grand occasions that 
were going to be during the stay of the Ninth at the 
Branch. The Governor was going to speiid several days 
there out of special compliment to the regiment, and join 



HOP AT THE CONTINENTAL. 265 

in its festivities and be its guest, as it were. General 
Grant, who has a cottage here, was to smile upon the en- 
campment, and many distinguished men were going to be 
present with their ladies. But all these rumors ended in 
disappointment. Governor Hoffman did indeed make a 
flying visit to the encampment, but declined even to review 
the regiment, saying he preferred to see dress parade, and 
returned to the city the same day. 

These little silent, negative slights were felt rather 
keenly, and it was then fully realized that great as was 
the attention the regiment attracted it was chiefly from 
causes not at all flattering. To compensate for some of 
the disappointments a grand ball in honor of the Ninth 
was gotten up at the Continental Hotel. The regiment 
took its meals at this hotel during its whole stay. It was 
announced that various distinguished citizens and mili- 
tary men were to be present at this ball. The appointed 
night came on. The dining hall was speedily metamor- 
phosed into a grand ball room very tastefully decorated. 
The hour for the ball to open arrived, but with it came 
none of the distinguished individuals whose presence on 
the occasion had been foretold on rather apocryphal 
authority. When the Colonel arrived and made his usual 
inquiry " "Well, how goes everything ?" he found the 
burden of the occasion still rested on him. Nothing 
daunted, he proceeded to open the ball quite as contented 
as though all the distinguished guests wished for had been 
present. The ladies were largely in the minority on the 



266 Qt7ID BONUM, FAUSTOM, FELIXQUK 8IT. 

occasion, so the soldier boys had to act as wall flowers. 
The music was very fine, there being some fifty pieces in 
the band. The affair passed off quite pleasantly and all 
had a good time, but it lacked what its promoters would 
have been most glad to have — the smiles of the elite. 

The last dress parade was on Sunday. When the manual 
had been gone through with, the order " Parade — rest !" 
was given and with the men in this position the Colonel 
addressed them as follows : 

" Officers and soldiers of the Ninth Regiment : by this 
time to-morrow evening there will be nothing left of Camp 
Gould but the ground on which our tents now stand. 
To-morrow we shall be on the march and therefore I avail 
myself of the present opportunity to address you. This is 
our last night in camp and I cannot dismiss you without 
expressing the pride and satisfaction I feel at your con- 
duct. You have behaved well as soldiers and I am proud 
of you. You have behaved well as citizens and I thank 
you. During the ten days you have been encamped I 
have not received a single complaint from any quarter 
from the residents of Long Branch or from the visitors ; 
and considering that we left New York nearly seven hun- 
dred strong and have had an average of about five hun- 
dred men per day here, this is more than I expected. I 
certainly anticipated a little trouble from outside, but I 
rejoice to say that up to this moment I have not received 
a single complaint. Gentlemen, tlfls is something to be 
proud of and I cannot find words to express my thanks to 
you one and all. The few days I have spent here have 
been more to me than so many months. I have learned 
to know you better and have realized the responsibility of 



" NONE SO TOOK TO DO HEK. REVERENCE." 267 

my position. Gentlemen, I am proud to command such a 
regiment and it shall be my study to make the Ninth the 
model regiment of the National Guard. Once again I 
thank you for the attention you have paid to your duties 
and in view of the progress made I am sure none of you 
will regret the time spent in Camp Gould." 

As the day for breaking up of the encampment and 
returning to the city approached, various rumors were 
afloat as to the compliment of an escort being extended to 
the Ninth by some one of the National Guard regiments 
on its arrival in New York. Some even had it that the 
aristocratic Seventh was to show Colonel Fisk this court- 
esy. In due time the Plymouth Eock reached her pier 
bringing the boys of the Ninth for her freight. A dense 
crowd packed all the available space in the vicinity of the 
pier and it was nearly an hour before the police could 
clear sufficient room for the regiment to land and form a 
line. But in all the crowd there was no escort of honor. 
The Ninth was alone. Among all the regiments of the 
National Guard, "none so poor to do her reverence." Such 
a graceful act would have been highly appreciated by both 
Colonel and men, but as none cared to offer it they felt 
quite able to paddle their own canoe. The regiment 
formed and started. Everywhere on their line of march, 
up Chambers Street, Broadway down 23d Street to 
the Grand Opera House — the crowd was as dense as at 
the pier. Sidewalks, windows and every point from which 
a view of the Colonel could be had, was packed with 



26H RIDING TIP BROADWAY. 

people anxious to get a sight, but every face wore a pecu- 
liar kind of smile that no other regiment excites. The 
Colonel sat his noble horse finely and made a fine appear- 
ance. He was as self-conscious as when he used to ride 
a brooHtick to his mother's great amusement. The little 
half nervous care he took to have everything about his posi- 
tion, carriage and appearance exactly to his liking, as he 
passed the grand hotels on the line of march showed that 
he understood the chief cause of all this curiosity and 
whence that peculiar smile. At length the Grand Opera 
House was reached and the march was ended. With a 
few characteristic words from the Colonel, producing a 
laugh as he rode alung the lines, the regiment was soon 
dismissed, evidently to the great relief of both Colonel and 
men, for it had been scorchingly hot and they had all 
suffered much from the heat on the homeward march. 

The next public appearance of the Ninth was at a ball 
at the Academy of Music in February. The " Charity 
Ball " having become one of the great events of the 
season at the Academy, and the Americus Club having 
had a very grand affair in the way of a ball at the same 
place, Colonel Fisk thought the Ninth should not be 
behind the times in this respect and so shortly after the 
two others had occurred the grand Ninth Regiment Ball 
was announced as the next thing in order in that line. 
But the Charity Ball and the Americus Club were not 
shorn of their laurels. The Ninth had a nice time 
pretty much to themselves — the whole air of the occasion 



GOrSTG TO BtTNKEE HILL. 269 

being the same as characterized their ball at Long 

Branch. 

The Plymouth Eock having been brought into service 

for the purposes of the regiment last year, and a change 

being desirable for this, it occurred to the Colonel that it 

would be a nice idea to take his regiment up to Boston by 

his Sound steamers, and create a sensation at "the Hub" 

by displaying his splendors at the celebration of Bunker 

Hill on the 17th of June. With this view he indited the 

following letter to the Mayor of Boston : 

New York, April 5th, 1871. 
Hon. William Gaston : 

Dear Sir — This will introduce to you Major J. B.. Hitch- 
cock, Captain A. G. Fuller and Lieutenant A. P. Bacon, 
officers of my regiment and the committee appointed by 
the board to visit your city and confer with you in regard 
to a proposed trip on the 17th of June proximo. They 
are empowered to make all arrangements in behalf of the 
Ninth Begiment, and I would respectfully ask that the 
hospitality of the city be extended to the regiment 
I am, with much respect, 

James Pise, Je., 

Colonel commanding. 

The Mayor laid the matter before the City Government, 
when considerable discussion arose, in the course of which 
Alderman Cowdin said he understood Colonel Pisk did 
not intend it should cost the city a dollar, the compliment 
only being desired. Alderman Plumer said he did not 
know anything about the regiment but did know some- 
thing of its Colonel, and he did not think it would be 



270 A COLP SHOULDEB. 

creditable for the city' to do anything in relation to the 
matter. The subject was then " laid on the table " by a 
decisive vote and given no more consideration. How the 
letter was regarded by the Bostonians may be accurately 
inferred from the following comments of the Boston Dally 
Advertiser : 

" The action of the Colonel of the Ninth New York 
Regiment, in asking for an official reception of his corps 
by the City of Boston, marks a new era in the history of 
effrontery. Such compliments are generally supposed to 
be tendered by the host, rather than asked for by the 
guest ; and when the would-be guest lets it be understood 
that ' it shall not cost the city a dollar,' the transition from 
the sublime to the ridiculous is at once reached. When 
the City of Boston tenders her hospitalities she does it on 
no mean scale, and will be slow to enter into any arrange- 
ment which smacks of those silver-plate presentations 
wherein the recipient pays for the present." 

Notwithstanding this rebuff, the doughty Colonel was 
not in the least moved from his purpose and went forward 
with his preparations, utterly indifferent whether he was 
welcome or not. Boston had got to see him in his elegant 
uniform and mounted on his proud war charger. He 
even manifested a greater contempt for the Boston " City 
Fathers " than they had manifested for him, by addressing 
the Mayor a second letter, as follows : 

New York, April 27, 1871. 
Hon. William Gaston, Mayor of Boston, Mass. : 

Dear Sir : On the 5th inst. I addressed to you a letter, 
asking an extension of hospitality to the Ninth Regiment, 



boston's city fathers snubbed. 271 

New York State National Guard, which letter, I under- 
stand, was delivered to you by a committee of the regi- 
ment and referred by you to the Board of Aldermen. I 
infer from the published proceedings that the letter, which 
was simply designed to obtain your official permission for 
the visit of my regiment, was misconstrued into an appli- 
cation for special favors at the expense of your city, a per- 
version for which there was no warrant and no excuse. 
The reason of my application to you was that (as I was 
informed) the law of your State did not allow the entry of 
an armed force without the sanction of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, or of the Chief Magistrate of the State or city to 
be entered. Having waited a sufficient time for your de- 
cision, and my regiment not having received from you the 
courtesy of a reply, I have applied, in the name of the 
regiment, to His Excellency the Governer of the Common- 
wealth for permission to enter your city, and he has most 
courteously and promptly granted the request. I beg, 
therefore, that you will relieve the Common Council from 
further consideration of the subject, as their action or in- 
action is a matter of perfect indifference to the gentlemen 
under my command. 

I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 
James Fisk, Jr., 

Colonel commanding. 




CHAPTER XIV. 



JOSIE AND THE GUM SHOE? ANOTHER MIDNIGHT ARBEST THE 

HEEL OF ACHILLES HINC ILLiE LACHEYM^: TOUCHING 

SCENES A HOENEt's NEST PUT ME IN MY LITTLE BED. 



The last new episode in Mr. Fisk's career which caused 
his name to figure conspicuously in the papers for a few 
days, was of a totally different nature from all its pre- 
decessors, reading more like a chapter from Ixion or the 
Odyssey while the others savored of the Arabian Nights, 
and betraying that, through all his stern battling and the 
many rude blasts that have beaten upon him, he has still 
preserved a tender and sensitive heart and strong affec- 
tions and that therein is his one vulnerable point — the one 
soft spot in the heel of Achilles. 

In January last the footsteps of a young man were 
dogged about the city the greater part of the night till he 




JOSXE. 



ANOTHER MIDNIGHT ARREST. 273 

was finally caught and arrested on a charge of heavy 
embezzlements from the Brooklyn Oil Refining Company, 
of which he was secretary. The features of the case 
developed rapidly. The young gent proved to have the 
kind of friends and influence that could unbolt his prison 
doors. He was soon restored to his full liberty and it 
was then made to appear that his arrest had been in- 
stigated by James Fisk, Jr., that there was a modern 
Helen in the case and that slighted love accounted for the 
milk in this cocoanut. 

Miss Helen Josephine Mansfield, a beautiful Boston 
girl, went to California with her mother at sixteen, in 
1864, to join her stepfather, there met and married the 
actor Frank Lawlor the next year, lived with him about 
two years, when he obtained a divorce without opposition 
on her part, both being in New York at the time. She 
subsequently met Mr. Fisk and he was greatly smitten 
with her at once and lavished upon her all the kindness 
and attention for which he is noted wherever his affections 
are enlisted. She lived on 23d Street, near the Grand 
Opera House, in an elegant residence frescoed and fur- 
nished in the most luxuriant manner, sumptuously sup- 
plied with everything that Sybarite taste could desire or 
wealth procure. She had one of the grandest turnouts 
that was ever seen in the Park, enjoyed the pleasures of 
Long Branch and was a conspicuous specimen of a certain 
type of beauty. There was no other place like Josie's for 
Mr. Fisk in the social hours. But this was one of those 



274 TEAKS, IDLE TEAKS. 

courses that proverbially never run smooth, and in time 
some disagreement sprung up in consequence of which Mr. 
Fisk received a note discontinuing the acquaintance and 
directing the removal of everything belonging to him in 
the house. This note naturally wounded the stout heart 
not a little and was 6aid to have affected him to tears. 




TEAR8. IDLE TEARS. 

Among the frequenters of Josie's elegant parlors was 
Edward S. Stokes, a fashionable young New Yorker, well 
acquainted with Mr. Fisk from business connection. On 
receiving the note that moved him bo deeply, the Admiral 
took it to Mr. Stokes, and with tears in his eyes, as was 



THE GUM SHOES. 



275 



reported, said, "See here, Ned, she won't even let me 
leave my gum shoes in the house !" 

It was in vain that Mr. Stokes endeavored to make 
light of the matter and say all would come round right 
again. Mr. Fisk wanted him to discontinue visiting at 
Josie's, but this he would not consent to promise, and the 
Admiral retired with clouded brow. Soon Mr. Stokes 
was informed of the rescinding of certain verbal con- 
tracts for large amounts which he had with the Erie 
Eailway. Next he was asked either to sell out his share 
in the Brooklyn Oil Refining Co., or buy out the other 
owners. He accepted the latter alternative and an agree- 
ment upon price was fixed between him and Mr. Fisk, 
but the other owners would not assent to the arrangement 
made by Mr. Fisk, so it fell through. From these and 
other indications, Mr. Stokes knowing he had incurred the 
displeasure and enmity of Mr. Fisk, sent him a note ask- 
ing for an interview at Delmonico's, that they might re- 
concile such an unworthy difference. The Admiral 
responded to the appointment, and on reaching the 
rendezvous remarked to Mr. Stokes, " I thought I could 
cut nearer a man's heart than any one in New York, but 
you go plump through it." The interview promised little 
result, the one thing that would satisfy Mr. Fisk being 
just the one thing that the other would not consent to, 
and therefore Mr. Stokes proposed that they should leave 
it to Josie to decide between them. Mr. Fisk assented to 
the proposal. He had to drill with the Ninth that evening, 



276 MEET ME IN JOSIE S. 

and left the famed restaurant saying to Stokes, " Meet me 
in Josie's at half past ten." 

At the later interview the parties holding the same 
determination, Josie declined to decide between them, 
seeing no reason why they should not all be friends, 
neither concerning himself about the doings of the other. 
But Mr. Fisk was inexorable in the stand he had taken 
and said, " It won't do, Josie ! You can't run two engines 
on one track in contrary directions at the same time." 
The interview was prolonged till the small hours of the 
night, and was said to have been attended with more 
tears but at last ended without any change of the situa- 
tion. 

The next development in the matter was the arrest of 
Mr. Stokes on the charge of embezzlement, when all the 
facts as related came out in the papers. The charge was 
speedily dismissed as unsustained and the whole affair 
was quickly smothered, it proving to have stirred up a 
more than usually troublesome hornet's nest. 

The next day after the above facts appeared in the 
papers, Mr. Fisk appeared in a characteristic letter to the 
World denying many of the statements and reminding 
that paper of the "sacred mandate," "Thou shalt not 
bear false witness against thy neighbor." But the most 
amusing part of this letter was not in the body of the 
letter itself. It is said the most important part of a lady's 
letter is always in the postscript, and the remark is equally 
applicable to Mr. Fisk's letter in this instance. After 



PUT ME IN MY LITTLE BED. 277 

quite a long statement of the facts and the appending of 
the sign manual came : 

"P. S. I only wish, where your article states I burst 
into tears that you gave the truth. Years ago, before the 
world battled me so fearfully, I have a vague recollection 
that emotions could be aroused which would call forth 
tears, but that is many years ago, far back, before energy 
had taken such complete hold of us all, and before ambition 
swayed the minds of men as it now does. But the mem- 
ory of those days is lasting and I can recall that when 
night came a mother's hand was laid upon my head, 
and I was taught to repeat a simple prayer and then I 
heard the words, ' My son, I must put you in your little 
bed.' 

" J. F., Jr." 




MAXIPU LATIN 



CHAPTER XV. 



MANIPULATING JUSTICE THK N. T. SUPREME COUKT STRANQB 

JUDICIAL INCONSISTENCIES NOW YOU SEE IT AND NOW YOU 

DON'T THE LAW'S DELAY RECEIVERS — A GREAT NAMB 

TARNISHED RICH PREY MAKES TRUE MEN TD1IEVES. 

Of the many remarkable things Mr. Fisk has done, 
and of all the wonderful power he has obtained, the most 
surprising undoubtedly is his connection with the Supreme 



THE STJPKEMK COURT. 279 

Court, his power therein and the things which he has 
done by its open and active support. 

When Mr. Fisk first became connected with the Erie 
Railroad and in the multitude of suits commenced soon 
after his advent the party with which he was identified 
was bitterly and scathingly denounced by Judge George 
G. Barnard as a band of "thieves, scoundrels and rascals 
who had infested Wall Street and Broad Street for 
years," and they were finally driven out of the State by 
him. 

There are eight judicial districts of the Supreme Court 
in New York, each presided over by a different set of 
judges, yet the power of each judge extends over the 
whole State, so that in this Court a man living in Buffalo 
may bring a suit in New York. Of course this whole 
system rests upon the assumption that the different 
judges, being each of the same power, will treat each 
other's proceedings with courtesy and respect, for if they 
wantonly or lightly exercise their authority they might go 
on issuing orders, injunctions and processes subsequent to 
each other ad infinitum and no issue ever be reached. 
When Judge Barnard granted his first orders and injunc- 
tions in the Vanderbilt-Erie war, the party with which 
Mr. Fisk trained took advantage of this possibility of abuse 
of power, and got subsequent injunctions and orders 
in various districts tieing up all of Judge Barnard's pro- 
ceedings. These orders were promptly disregarded by 
Judge Barnard as being anomalous, monstrous and be- 



280 FIRST SCENE. 

yond a judge's right or power. The question came up in 
the General Term of the Supreme Court in June, 1868, in 
one of the Vanderbilt cases and the decision was unani- 
mous against such a power in a judge, and in giving the 
opinion of the Court Judge Cardozo said : 

" The idea that a cause by such manoeuvres as have 
been resorted to here can be withdrawn from one judge 
of this court and taken possession of by another, that 
thus one judge can practically prevent his associate from 
exercising his judicial functions ; that thus a cause may 
be taken from judge to judge whenever one of the parties 
fears that an unfavorable opinion is about to be rendered 
by the judge who, up to that time has sat in the case, 
and that thus a decision in the suit may be constantly 
and indefinitely postponed at the will of one of the 
litigants only, deserves to be noticed as being a curiosity 
in legal tactics, — a remarkable exhibition of inventive 
genius and fertility of expedient to embarrass suits which 
this extraordinarily conducted litigation has developed. 
Such a practice as that disclosed by this litigation, 
sanctioning the attempt to counteract the orders of each 
other in the progress of the suit, I confess is new and 
shocking to me, and I trust that Ave have seen the last in 
this tribunal of such practices as this case has exhibited." 

The chief managers of the legal tactics alluded to in 
these words, tactics for the anti- Vanderbilt party with 
which Mr. Fisk was identified, were the members of the 
distinguished law firm of Field & Shearman. The 
senior member is Mr. David Dudley Field, one of the 
fathers of the New York Code, a man with a name famed 



FIKST SCENE. 281 

in. England as well as at home, who is put down in the 
Cyclopaedia as " a great law reformer" the brother of 
Mr. Cyrus Field who laid the first Atlantic cable, and a 
man of highest social and professional standing. Mr. 
Shearman is one of the few thorough read lawyers among 
the younger members of the New York bar, a man of 
eminent professional standing and the superintendent of 
the Sunday School in Henry Ward Beecher's .Church. 
Dudley Field, a son of David Dudley, is the third 
member of the firm. At the time of the first legal 
scandal raised by the Vanderbilt-Erie war, the opinion 
entertained by this firm as to the moral and professional 
character of Judge Barnard had been placed beyond any 
doubt. Mr. Shearman had already published an article 
in the North American JZeview, portraying this very 
judge in the most derogatory terms, as a man utterly 
devoid of the legal attainments or moral character befit- 
ting his position ; David Dudley Field was at that very 
time actively exerting himself to bring about the 
impeachment of this same judge, as being notoriously 
corrupt, a scandal and disgrace to the bench; and the 
opinion which Dudley Field, the son, had of the man was 
proven in one of these very cases by evidence taken before 
the judge himself showing that he had attempted to bribe 
the judge to sign an order by offering him money if he 
consented and threatening his impeachment if he refused. 
The next scene occurs after a lapse of some six months 
after the opening scandal, this record of the firm of Field 



282 8ECOND SCENE. 

& Shearman, and the foregoing words from Judge Car- 
dozo. And this scene finds Judge Barnard in the most 
intimate relations with Fist and the very men whom, 
when we last heard him, he was denouncing as " thieves, 
scoundrels and rascals," granting at their request some of 
the most astounding orders that ever emanated from a 
court. Judge Oardozo is seen doing the very things which 
when we last heard him he declared himself " shocked " 
at the very idea of, and " trusted he had seen the last of 
it in this high tribunal" — taking cases, not from another 
district merely, but from a fellow judge in his own dis- 
trict, and under circumstances far more aggravating than 
those in the case which he had himself so severely repro- 
bated and declared beyond the power of a judge only a 
few months before. And the firm of Field & Shearman is 
disclosed as having suddenly ceased their warfare upon 
the judge whom they had denounced as too corrupt to be 
tolerated, and now all the suits of their distinguished 
railroad client are dragged before this very judge by 
hook and by crook, by precisely the same manoeuvres 
which the judge had declared wholly without warrant 
and illegal, and had disregarded the proceedings on that 
ground, and been sustained in his course by the decision 
of his General Term. Several important suits commenced 
against the Erie Railway in other districts, for the oxpress 
purpose that they might not be tried before Barnard, have 
by an abuse of the law been dragged before this very 
judge whom the attorneys manceuvering these tactics had 



the law's delay. 283 

recorded themselves as knowing to be corrupt, and doing 
thereby just what this judge had declared could not be 
done. In the Albany & Susquehanna war, Barnard and 
Peckham followed each other with counter injunctions 
morning after morning, each one tieing up all the other 
had done, till the law fell into utter contempt and was 
wholly unheeded. 

The numerous suits commenced against Fish to enforce 
the contracts entered into on his behalf on Black Friday 
and which he repudiated, were brought in the Court of 
Common Pleas, probably for the express purpose of 
avoiding Barnard; but when they were all commenced, 
that judge coolly issued an order commanding all these 
suits to be transferred from the Common Pleas and 
brought before him. This order was appealed from as 
being quite beyond his power. The question came up 
in the General Term after much delay, and Barnard 
being disqualified from sitting in review of one of his 
own cases, there were only two judges to pass upon it. 
Judge Ingraham promptly decided that Barnard had 
exceeded his authority and that the suits could not be 
taken out of the Common Pleas in the manner attempted. 
Cardozo was not ready to decide, so the case had another 
long delay. Being at length forced to dispose of the 
question somehow, Cardozo gave no opinion on the subject 
at all but merely failed to concur with Judge Ingraham. 
Under the rule in such cases, where the Court is divided, 
the question went to the Second (Brooklyn) District. 



284 PACIFIC fi. B. DRIVEN OUT OP NEW YORK. 

Here it was promptly decided that Barnard had no such 
authority as he had assumed. Thus, after two years and 
a half of "the law's delay," under the manoeuvring of 
Field & Shearman and their now favorite Judge Bar- 
nard, these gold suits have got back to where they 
were commenced. 

In the early days of the Union Pacific Eailroad, Mr. 
Fisk wanted to purchase a large amount of stock by pay- 
ing only a certain per cent, of the value down (as is gen- 
erally done on original subscriptions), that he might have 
an important voice in its councils. This offer was 
declined and he was permitted to have only so much 
stock as he would pay the full value of at once. This 
offended him and he was bent on being a thorn in the 
side of the great corporation. He purchased some half 
dozen shares of the stock and then commenced a suit 
against the company to compel them to make known its 
affairs to him as a stockholder. In the course of the suit 
of course it was made necessary to have the books of the 
company for inspection. The officers declined to give 
them up. Fisk got an order to seize them and a score of 
men were set to work with sledge hammers to batter in 
the huge safe of the company in the wall of their office 
in Nassau Street. The proceeding caused much excite- 
ment in the vicinity, but the hammering was kept up and 
finally the heavy plates of iron yielded and the safe was 
opened. The company were so indignant at this outrage 
under the protection of the Courts that they removed their 



ENGLISH STOCKHOLDEKS BOBBED. 285 

head-quarters from New York to Boston, and thus one of 
the greatest corporations in the world both in wealth and 
importance was literally driven out of New York by Mr. 
Eisk and the insecurity which they felt in the New York 
Courts. 

Some English owners of upwards of 60,000 shares of 
Erie stock sent them to the officers of the company for 
transfer before the books were closed for election. 
Messrs. Eisk and Gould seized every one of the^e shares 
and got an order from Judge Barnard sustaining them in 
the seizure, which was nothing but a daring robbery. 
Legal proceedings were commenced by the owners, but 
the case came up before Barnard and he put it down for 
trial after election. The first object of the owners — to 
vote on their stock — being thus hopelessly gone, they were 
next concerned lest they should lose their property en- 
tirely. Judge Barnard had appointed a receiver at the 
instigation of Eisk and Gould who had taken possession 
of the stock. A suit was commenced in the United States 
Court in the matter, one of the parties being a foreigner, 
the stock meantime remaining in the hands of the Bar- 
nard receiver. When the suit had been delayed as long 
as possible and was likely to come on and be decided in a 
way to take the property out of the custody of the Bar- 
nard receiver, Mr. Eisk's lawyers served a notice of dis- 
continuance of the suit in the United States Court, and 
recommenced proceedings in the State Court, intending to 
travel over this same course of delay again. It was soon 



286 



found that this dodge would not work and the matter had 
to be left to the United States Courts. When it came on 
for trial, all the Erie clerks who were important witnesses 
in the matter had suddenly disappeared, reported to have 
gone to Europe, and Jay Gould when on the stand could 
not seem to remember anything. This farce soon leading 
to very hot water, and an order being issued for Jay 
Gould's arrest for contempt, the desired witnesses and 
books were forthcoming and Mr. Gould's memory sud- 
denly became excellent. 

A receiver is an officer of the Court appointed to take 
charge of property in litigation to see that no harm comes 
to it and that the interests of neither party suffers pend- 
ing proceedings. He stands in the place of the Court and 
is supposed to be indifferent to the two parties, favoring 
neither. Judge Barnard's first act in favor of Messrs. 
Eisk and Gould was to appoint Jay Gould himself a re- 
ceiver of the Erie Eailway upon Gould's own petition for 
the appointment of a receiver, he being the president of 
the road at the time and the leader of one of the hostile 
parties. 

In the Albany & Susquehanna war, James Eisk, Jr., 
was the active leader of one of the factions, yet when a 
receiver of that road was petitioned for in Fisk's own 
suit, James Fisk, Jr., was the disinterested and impartial 
receiver whom Judge Barnard thought proper to appoint 
for the responsible trust and to represent the Court. 
And when a receiver of the stock of disputed legality in 



A GREAT NAME TARNISHED. 287 

the same case was asked for, Judge Barnard appointed 
a man so exceedingly impartial and disinterested that he 
subsequently voted on the stock in favor of Mr. Fisk, 
contrary to the wishes of the only man who could by any 
possibility have had any right to vote on it at all, and for 
this impartial and disinterested service, his fee was the 
modest sum of $15,000 ! 

It is a long road that has no turning, and recent events 
have shown indications that these legal scandals and out- 
rages have reached the length of their tether. All at once, 
the great firm of Field & Shearman have found their 
reputation for professional honor hopelessly blemished, 
their social status sadly weakened, and a name that was 
near the pinnacle of lasting fame suddenly sunk in dis- 
grace and fouled with mud flung by their own hand. 
They are realizing that, even in New York, there are 
some things which may not be done with social and pro- 
fessional impunity. 

The following is the sworn statement of Jay Gould of 
lawyers' fees paid by the Erie Railway for the single 
year 1868: 

Eaton & Taylor $39,998 30 

D. D. & D. Field 31,289 10 

David Dudley Field 12,000 00 

Field & Shearman 5,000 00 

William M. Evarts 15,000 00 

O. A. Seward 24,000 00 

E. W. Stouaiiton 15,500 00 

John K. Porter 22.000 00 

William Fullerton 11,000 00 

John E. Burrill 21,000 00 

James T.Brady 6,000 00 



288 RICH PKEY MAKES TETJE MEN THIEVES. 



A. J. Vanderpoel $10,000 00 

Brown, Hall & Vanderpoel 1,000 00 

Edwards Pierrepont 30.000 00 

Martin & Smith 12,500 00 

J. C. Bancroft Davis 10,612 00 

Levi Underwood 11,602 00 

John Ganson 15,000 00 

Ganson & Smith 2.031 50 

C. N. Potter 7,000 00 

Dixumick & Whitney 5,000 00 

J. N. Whiting 2,500 00 

William H. Morgan 2,177 80 

Cortlandt Parker 3,101) 00 

Peter Cagger 2,000 00 

Samuel Hand 1,000 00 

L. Seymour 1,250 00 

J. — . Bos-worth .' 1,000 00 

Chapman & Martin 1,000 00 

Isaac W. Scudder 1,000 00 

John Hopper 1.500 00 

Devlin 1,000 00 

Lane 1 .000 00 

H. Harris 1,000 00 

Lyman Tremain 700 Ol ) 

Rumsey. Jones & Robie 750 00 

David Rumsey 500 00 

Bradley & Kendall 500 00 

Spencer, Thomson & Mills 500 00 

L. Zabriskie 500 00 



$330,510 70 
D. D. & D. Field, David Dudley Field, and Field & 
Shearman, being practically one and the same, the amount 
paid this one firm was $48,289.10. 

•' Rich prey makes true men thieves." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

AT HOME HIS LEISURE HOUBS IN THE PARK AT LONG 

BRANCH AMONG HIS MEN. 

Mr. Fisk's private life is on the same sumptuous scale 
of grandeur and luxuriance, as his career in the business 
world and the acts which have made him known to the 
public. His residence is in Twenty-third Street, near his 
Erie castle, and nothing that wealth can bring is spared 
in its accommodations and supplies. He keeps a stable of 
fine horses, seeming to delight more in a fine, lai-ge turn- 
out than in a fast team. He is often seen in the Park or 
on Fifth Avenue, with a beautiful four-in-hand, and some- 
times with six fine horses, three blacks on one side and 
three whites on the other. Not unfrequently he holds 
the ribbons himself, which he can do in a style that few 
owners of a turnout can boast. On his large drag or 
coach are four colored men in livery, two footmen be- 
hind, and the driver and assistant in front. No other 
turnout in the city creates anything like the sensation 
that his does. 



290 NOTHING OF THE MISER. 

He has a summer cottage at Long Branch, and here, 
as elsewhere, during the season, he appears in the grand- 
est style, has the most striking turnout, and attracts 
universal attention. 

Mrs. Fisk still resides in Boston, living there a life 
that is a fitting counterpart of her husband's in point of 
luxuriance. She has a beautiful summer villa at New- 
port, and has the most striking turnout that appears 
upon Bellevue Avenue. She was a Miss Lucy Moore, 
of Springfield, Mass. 

Both Mr. and Mrs. Fisk are very liberal and gene- 
rous with their ample means and many a noble and grace- 
ful act of kindness might be recorded of each. There is 
probably no man living who would go farther or spend 
more for revenge than Mr. Fisk if he felt himself 
wronged ; but on the other hand, no man is more kind- 
hearted or ready with his means Avhen he knows he can 
do good and help the deserving or a friend. He is quick 
to appreciate a favor and never forgets it. Great as has 
been his race for money, he cares as little for it as any 
man that can be found, knowing how little contentment 
money in itself can give. He has not the least grain of 
the miser about him. His career has been much more 
for the fun and excitement of it than for the gain. Few 
men in New York to-day would care so little at be- 
coming suddenly poor. All his immense business affairs 
are attended to as so much play, seeming not to weigh 
him down with any care or trouble. With half a dozen 



HAIL ! FELLOW, WELL MET ! 291 

enterprises on hand, any one of which would be all that 
most men would want the care of, he seems as free from 
care or anxiety as a school boy, dashes off his duties 
with astounding rapidity, and is iacetious and full of 
fun all the time. His Wall Street enterprises especially 
he is said to go into chiefly for the fun of the thing, re- 
garding them as a side amusement or by-play. 

No being was ever more self-sufficient or self-reliant. 
He satisfies himself and acts upon his own ideas. If 
others like it, it is well ; and if they do not like it, he 
don't care. Himself was the one he intended to please, 
not them. The one trait in which he stands almost 
alone is, that he seems to want everything and every- 
body in his power, and trusts nobody that he cannot 
command absolutely. He wants to ask nothing done as 
a favor, but to order it as a right to which he is enti- 
tled. He is not harsh or offensive, but the reverse, in 
the exercise of his power or authority ; yet all about him 
must tacitly acknowledge it. He is so perfectly affable 
with every one, whether of high or low degree ; his man- 
ner is so full of that hail-fellow-well-met style to every one 
with whom he comes in contact, and he is so constantly 
full of fun, he is liked not a little by the army of em- 
jjloyes and retainers that surround him in his Erie 
offices, his theatres, his regiment, and his navy. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

CONCLUSION. 

Such is a sketch of the most prominent acts in a career 
that is without a parallel. A glance at them can scarce- 
ly fail to leave a conviction that Mr. Fisk is a man of 
much more wonderful mental traits and power than he 
has been credited with. In the stream of detraction and 
villification which has been turned upon him in an un- 
changing current, his remarkable abilities have been over- 
shadowed, failed of adequate recognition, or even been 
denied, in the eagerness to portray the enormity of his 
doings. It is the fashion to say that any unmitigated 
rascal, devoid of all sense of shame, with no comprehen- 
sion of such a thing as diffidence or modesty, reckless of 
what is said or thought of him, could do what he has 
done. It is true that he is not troubled with diffidence, 
or sensitive as to public or private opinion, and that, had 
he been, he could never have achieved what he has; but 
these mere negative qualities could never have made 
James Fisk, Jr. Many brilliant, positive endowments 



CONCLUSION. 293 

have been displayed in the schemes he has conceived, 
and not one man in thousands has the executive ability 
to do what he has done, and daily does. Not one man in 
thousands could attend to the affairs that constitute his 
daily duties, without being completely worn out in a 
month — could not possibly get through them at all — yet 
he turns them all off as hardly more than so much fun. 
He has many of the same mental qualities that have 
made a Bismarck, and had he been an educated man, he 
would have undoubtedly led an equally remarkable 
career in a very different field and written his name on 
his country's history as one of her most remarkable 
public men. 

" Jim Fisk" is a name hardly less familiar than a 
household word throughout the length and breadth of 
the land to-day, nor is it unknown beyond the sea. 
The name of but few men living is so often on the lips 
and in the ears of as many people in all ranks of society, 
and the name of no other man not holding official po- 
litical position to give him prominence and cause him 
to be talked of and written about, is daily found in so 
many newspapers, the subject of leading editorials or 
gossiping correspondence, represented as the prime 
mover of some gigantic enterprize that evokes a mur- 
mur of amazement from the multitude, the manipulator 
of Legislatures and men of highest official position, the 
party of chief prominence and interest in some great 
litigation involving millions of dollars and crowding the 



294 CONCLUSION. 

court room with the most brilliant and distinguished 
legal lights in the country — all for his own private, 
personal, selfish schemes, and in utter disregard, con- 
tempt and defiance of all the laws alike of God, of the 
State and of society. And yet, three years ago this 
name was wholly unknown to the world ! All this no- 
toriety, prominence and power has been achieved as if 
by magic, and has been steadily maintained and in- 
creased by a man who started without money, influence, 
social position or education, without experience in affairs 
of the kind through which he has become prominent, or 
any training naturally tending to fit him for such a 
career, and while every possible combination of power 
and influence known to civilization has been exerted in 
opposition. While the press, which vaunts so loudly 
and self-complacently of its irresistible power and in- 
fluence in these latter days, has been howling at his 
heels at every step, pouring detraction and derision upon 
him, and doing its utmost to create a repulsive stench 
around him, he has uniformly triumphed where it has 
tried to thwart, risen where it has tried to crush, and 
drawn the gaze and prominence which it has sought to 
turn away. While the Titans whose name and fame 
will long live in the traditions of Wall Street were en- 
gaged in a fierce struggle, this young protege of one of 
them ran oft' witli the spoil over which they were con- 
tending, trapping them both by his strategy, and gain- 
ing, at his first stroke, an advantage and supremacy 



CONCLUSION. 295 

which they have since been unable to recover or shake. 
Unlimited capital, both of this conntry and England, 
managed by the most crafty and distinguished vete- 
rans of the world at stock jobbing, has been unavail- 
ing against him, and finally, after many vain efforts, 
abandoned the attempt. With the ablest and keenest 
legal talent of the world arrayed against him, in pro- 
ceedings where there seemed no doubt that the most fun- 
damental principles of law and equity had been wan- 
tonly violated and outraged, he has been uniformly tri- 
umphant in the courts, and kept himself out of the 
clutches of the law. While the owners of one of the 
finest railroad franchises in the world have been clamor- 
ing for their rights, and using their most strenuous exer- 
tions to recover control of their property, some voice in 
its management, and some share in its earnings, he has 
steadily maintained his absolute power and authority 
over the corporation, and held it firmly in his grip, des- 
pite all that the stockholders, aided by his envious rivals, 
could do. While it was daily blazoned before the public 
that his control of the Erie Railway was the most daring- 
usurpation and outrage, and his disposition of its earn- 
ings the boldest robbery and wholly illegal, a Legisla- 
ture, the majority in which was in opposition to the 
party engineering his scheme, passed a law enabling him 
to retain his control of the corporation beyond the voice 
or reach of the stockholders for six yeai-s, and this law, 
though its avowed purpose and immediate consequence 



296 CONCLUSION. 

were well known, receded the signature of Governor 
John T. Hoffman. Though all decent society has barred 
and bolted her doors against him, turned her back and ap- 
plied handkerchief and cologne water to her nose where 
ever his name has been mentioned, he has forced her to 
think of him, talk of him, gaze at him, be dependent 
upon him, and admire not a few of his accommodations 
for her ; he has appeared in her favorite haunts, at the 
height of her fashionable season, unabashed, conspicuous, 
the lion of the hour, always openly manifesting his con- 
tempt for her, feeling above her. When he appears in his 
grand four-in-hand ecpiipage upon the new Avorld's ave- 
nue of greatest renown, whose name stands as the symbol 
of the greatest wealth, refinement, and highest social 
position, and dashes into Central Park, where drive the 
elite and great from every quarter of the world, he draws 
the gaze of all, in high and low degree, as does no one else, 
forcing those who affect to despise him to stand under his 
shadow, and the ladies who are the envied leaders of 
America's most exclusive class, whose presence he is for- 
bidden, he makes obscure by the superior splendors of 
his favorite of the hour. The brilliant audiences that 
nightly assemble in the two most elegant theatres in the 
great metropolis, find themselves in establishments of 
which he is the owner and figurehead, and admiring 
splendors that are embodiments of his taste, prepared 
under his direction. The gay seekers of pleasure in sum- 
mer travel, enjoying the lovely ride up Long Island 



CONCLUSION. 297 

Sound, find themselves on his steamers — the finest in the 
world, and more replete even with refining pleasures 
than any other. Sojourners to the summer seaside 
pleasures, where the most distinguished men of the na- 
tion seek recreation and rest in a brief respite from offi- 
cial or business cares and oppressive heat, find him the 
most conspicuous personage at their favorite resort, and 
it is his " floating palace" that bears them to and fro. 
When the Chief Magistrate of the nation goes out 
with his family for an evening drive, the resplendent 
" Prince Erie" passes him in eclipsing splendor on the 
road, and unblushingly flaunts in his face a common 
danseuse — to-day a Parisienne, to-morrow a Berlinese — 
imported for him by his special agent, sent to Europe 
for this purpose. When wealth, fashion, beauty, and re- 
finement gathers to mingle its splendors in the sunset 
pageant at Long Branch, and witness the spectacle of a 
regiment at dress parade, the commander of the men in 
line, the central point of attraction and sensation, the 
cynosure of all eyes, is Colonel James Fisk, Jr. When 
his regiment marches up Broadway, streets, sidewalks, 
and windows are literally packed with people, gazing 
with an eagerness and peculiar interest that no other 
regiment ever excites — all because of the remarkable 
man riding at the head of the column. Even Newport, 
the favorite summer resort of the most exclusive ranks, 
escapes him not, and her Bellevue Avenue has its great- 
est sensation, and most heads are turned to gaze when 



298 CONCLUSION. 

Mrs. .lames Fisk, Jr., appears in her four-in-hand equip- 
age. And Boston, " the hub of the universe," the head- 
quarters of contempt for shoddy, home of the Puritans, 
the one city that prides itself on a society graded upon 
individual worth in character and intellect, so far forgets 
her self-respect as to exhibit a slight aberration from her 
fixed orbit, under the periodical influence of her ex-dry- 
goodsman, and when his carriage halts in her great 
thoroughfare, immediately there gathers around a crowd 
so dense as to make passing next to impossible, and beg- 
gar the ingenuity of the police and put them in despair 
till they forget themselves, and join those who have 
momentarily ceased to respect their batons and brass 
buttons, and the crowd gaze into the carriage to inspect 
its blue silk lining, and stare with a persistence that 
makes the genteel coachman blush on his box and make 
short trips up and down the street to break the embar- 
rassing gaze. 

The man in whose career such are the salient features, 
who, from being unknown there years ago, is now so no- 
torious and conspicuous ; who, from such a beginning, 
has attained such varied power and prominence, must 
certainly be regarded as the most remarkable character 
of the times, and as such will be a greater wonder years 
hence than now. From whatever point of view his ca- 
reer be considered, whether from the enormity of the 
acts which he has succeeded in perpetrating unscathed, 
the mental endowments which have conceived and 



CONCLUSION. 299 

executed them, or the social, moral and political 
condition of the community in which these things are 
possible; to whatever cause his singular fortune be at- 
tributed, whether to an absence of qualities of heart, 
conscience and moral sense, as many do, or to the posses- 
sion of brilliant abilities, a genius to conceive and a nerve 
and capacity to execute, as some do, or to the demoral- 
ized social and political condition that has resulted from 
our system of government, as most Europeans and some 
of our more thoughtful minds may, — in any view, with 
any cause, the fact remains and is equally remarkable, 
that a man depending upon nothing but himself, by his 
own unaided abilities and exertions, with all the world 
opposing him, has, in three years, risen from obscurity to 
be the most conspicuous and important man in many 
and varied scenes, and keeps himself constantly and 
prominently before the very people that despise him 
most. Tell an inhabitant of any other country the story 
of his career and he cannot comprehend it, cannot un- 
derstand the possible existence in this age of civilization, 
of a state of society in which such a course could be run 
in a land of law. 

When some future Buckle shall take up and complete 
the "History of Civilization," he will dwell long upon 
the story of this man's life and ponder it well, not be- 
cause of its intrinsic interest, but because of the proof 
and illustration it affords of the tone and character of 
the times in which such a career was possible, and when 



300 CONCLUSION. 

the lesson of this instructive epoch is analyzed and 
summed up, many forcible arguments will be pointed by 
the story of the career of James Fisk, Jr. 



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